Twice the Apathy
by 88mph
Summary: SI/OC with 'Gamer' powers. Kensuke was sold to Konoha to become a ninja in the aftermath of the Kyuubi attack. He doesn't want to be a ninja, he has dreams of a far more peaceful life in his past, but failing the Academy has dire consequences. It doesn't help that Uzumaki keeps humiliating him with pranks to lighten him up. If only the Sandaime's pet would leave him alone...
1. Chapter 1

**Twice the Apathy**

It is difficult to take anything seriously when nothing makes sense. My life alternates by twos. Let me explain. I live one day as Kensuke and the other day as Kenneth McKinnon. Neither of these identities is real to me, but they are all I have left. I feel like a displaced person, wearing someone else's skin. But I dream of who I used to be, of a life and world that made far more sense than the ones I find myself in.

The last I remember of my life is sitting down on my couch in my apartment and flicking on the TV. Beyond that everything is a blank until I wake up as Kensuke or Kenneth.

oOo

Today I am Kensuke. I'm dressed in what can be nominally considered my academy uniform. I'm thirteen and facing a chunnin who is glaring at me. Dai-san, the chunnin in question, is very upset with me. This is not a first and I care very little. He opens my file and closes it, opens it again and then slams his hand down on it. I jump despite my general lack of giving a damn about anything.

"You've been in the Academy four years and have failed a second time?" he snarled. "Do you think if you keep failing I will take you back to your parents, eh? The same ones who sold you for a few ryo?"

A cold vise grips my heart at the reminder of my parents. My parents are farmers and had children as a way of producing a labor force for their land. I am or was seventh of eight – they may have had more after I left. Dai-san had shown up on our farm one day and spoken to my parents about taking me to Konoha to join its ninja forces.

In the aftermath of the Kyuubi attack, coming so soon after the end of the Third Ninja War, Konoha's forces were nearly decimated. They needed more new ninja than the village itself could provide. So scouts were sent out over Fire Country, to look for potential cadets. It's my good or bad luck that I have enough chakra to have a chance at making a ninja.

Dai-san thought I was worth the good amount he paid to my parents, who were quite happy to let me go. I was one less mouth to feed. Like any child, I was attached to my parents, so it broke my heart to be separated from them. It was only when I slowly started dreaming of my old life, my real life, that I found perspective. My real parents had been loving and would never have sold me. At least that's what I think I remember.

"Kensuke!" Dai-san yelled.

I jumped again, pulled out of my meandering thoughts. "Hai?"

"If you fail a third time you will be booted out of the ninja program," Dai-san said with a glower. "You need to start working hard."

I don't give a damn about being a ninja. Even if I did, the gap between clan raised children and farm raised kids like me was too vast. "Dai-san, I'm just a farmer…"

Dai-san was out of his chair and in front of me before I could finish another word. His hand wrapped around my neck and lifted me in the air. I was going to die; I felt it in every fiber of my being. "You little shit," he growled. "I've been waiting four years for the bonus I'm supposed to get when you graduate. On the other hand, if you don't graduate I will have to pay half your upkeep back to village treasury." He threw me against the wall. The feeling of my imminent death lessened a little bit.

My body screamed in pain but I heard his words as he left me lying in the room: "I will sell you to a whore house to make back my losses, boy. So you better stop being a farmer."

Damn it… _Damn it…You can all burn in Hell! You fucking ninja! I wish you didn't exist!_

[Life Quest: Destroy the Ninja way. Rewards: Beyond imagination. Failure: Death, Torture, Dismemberment.][Accept][Decline]

"What?" I said under my breath. I was holding my ribs and sitting against the wall I had been thrown against. A screen was floating mid-air in front of my eyes. I shook my head and stood but the screen followed me up. I rubbed my eyes and swiped my hand through the screen. The [Accept] button flashed for a second and the screen disappeared.

Figuring Dai-bastard had knocked my head too hard I promptly put the screen out of my mind. I had other things to worry about, like how I was going to graduate in the next exam. Like last time I will be moved down to the class behind me and will get around four months with them before the exams will be held again. Just my luck that in this stupid ninja world they start ninja classes every four months rather than annually. Have to churn out as many child soldiers as possible.

I shuffled through the hot Konoha streets, slowly making my way to the apartment building cadets like me lived in. Hearing shouts behind me I moved out of the street. A blond kid came tearing down the road, his laughter was easy to recognize. It was that obnoxious bastard Uzumaki, the only other kid than me who had failed twice in a row. We had joined the academy at the same time. He liked sparring against me because he could always beat me, even though I'm taller and broader than him. Fucking bastard couldn't hack it with the clan kids so he made himself feel better by dominating someone like me.

He passed me by and a moment after that a bunch of ninja ran after him. They shouted at him to stop and cursed him out for whatever prank he had pulled this time. I thanked God it wasn't on me this time. I hope they catch the ass. He has ruined several of my things with paint or glue or some other unholy mix. Unlike him I don't have the Hokage filling my wallet whenever something gets destroyed. Apparently my crime, according to Uzumaki, is that I'm too stiff and I need to be 'lightened up' by being humiliated. So I'm a bit anti-social, in my mind I'm a lot older than brats who have barely passed into double digits; they don't exactly make for great company.

I sighed as I start walking again. I was really hoping that they would kick me out of the Academy. Now I'm stuck with another four months with Uzumaki and his destructive sense of humor. Anyway, I have far more serious things to consider. I can't slack off anymore. I have to graduate or Dai will kill me. And once I graduate an enemy nin can kill me instead. Joy.

My apartment is a shared one with four others. All the others have graduated and are genin. One of them is dead already. But we keep his things around to show that there isn't room for another roommate. The landlord is batty as Hell and as long as he gets his rent, he doesn't look too closely. Poor Shiro, he was like me, someone purchased from outside the village. He wanted to be a ninja so badly that he hated my laidback attitude. We had never gotten along but I'm always sad when I'm reminded he's dead.

I went to my corner of the apartment. My desk is pushed up against the window. All my scrolls and books are lying on top as they always have. Some have ink stains and food stains, courtesy of Uzumaki. It pisses me off on principle, not like I really wanted to use any of them before today.

Slumping into my chair I pulled the scrolls sitting at the desk toward myself. I better start studying.

[You have found Floating Leaf Style Taijutsu scroll. Would you like to learn it?][Yes][No]

[You have found Essential Three Ninjutsu scroll. Would you like to learn it?][Yes][No]

[You have found Basic Weapon Wielding scroll. Would you like to learn it?][Yes][No]

Hell Yes! I do! I selected [Yes] on all three and got warning messages on all of them. [Insufficient STR and DEX score. Minimum 5 needed.][Insufficient DEX score for Ninjustu Scroll. Minimum 5 needed.]

Well damn. "Stats!" I called out and saw a screen appear with the following information:

Kensuke

Academy Student

Age: 13

LVL 3

STR 3

DEX 2

VIT 4

INT 27

WIS 35

LUK 0

PTS 0

I am so very, very weak. I pushed the three scrolls aside and started searching through my drawers for a scroll I remembered getting early in the Academy. Ha! I shouted when I found it. [You have found Beginners Ninja Physical Conditioning scroll. Would you like to learn it?] I selected yes.

The scroll turned to dust and vanished. I felt a gentle breeze on my skin that went through my mind. My muscles warmed and grew. I stood and fell into a series of stretches that would have left me gasping like an arthritic grandmother just the day before. After absorbing the scroll I was doing them as if I had been doing them for months. Messages popped up about percentage increases in my DEX, VIT, and STR but I was having too much fun doing exercise. This is insane!

For some strange reason I kept working out and going through the different routines. Then I went for a jog all the way to the Academy grounds so I could use the obstacle course. [You have gained 1 point of DEX and STR]. That had taken two hours of working out. Man, if the points come this fast, I'm going to be head of the class in no time. The bump ups in my stats gave me second wind and so when I reached the obstacle course I was grinning in anticipation.

It was right before sunset. The orange light glinted off the razor wire strung over a mud pit. Ropes hung from tall poles that one could swing from to avoid the razor wire and if you weren't agile enough for that you could crawl through the mud pit. For the first time ever I took a running leap and grabbed onto the rope. It swung from the force of my leap, my arms burned but I held on for dear life. A platform floating in water appeared in my vision. I let go and stumbled on top of it. Safe!

With greater confidence I went on to the rest of the course and managed to run the whole thing twice. It was nighttime when I got the message, "Your DEX and STR have gone up by 1."

"Finally!" I yelled and started trudging back to my apartment. I should have enough DEX to learn my other scrolls now. Maybe I'll make a Genin with this Gamer power yet.

[Quest: Place in the top 15 graduates and earn Genin rank. Reward: Chunin Dai will not sell you to a whore house to recoup his costs. Your memories of your old life will be restored. Failure: Your chakra will be sealed and you will be sold into prostitution. All hope of remembering your old life in full will disappear.]

I stared at the quest window for a long minute trying to control my hope. If I succeeded I would remember who I had been, I would remember my family, I already have vague memories that told me I was loved. But I would _know_ for certain if I became a Genin. I accepted the quest.

Suddenly I had all the motivation in the world to be a ninja.

I stopped by the water tank out on the Academy training field to slake my thirst and wash my face and hands. The cool water felt wonderful on my sweaty skin. Maybe for the first time in my life I was experiencing the afterglow of a good hard day's work.

The sound of metal against pavement startled me. I looked up from the tap to find Uzumaki staring at me. He had paint cans in one hand and a brush in the other.

"What are you doing here?" We both said at the same time.

"I was training and now I'm going home," I said. I turned away as quickly as I could. It only took me a few seconds to realize what the combination of Uzumaki with paint on the night he had failed his exam meant: He was going to deface the Academy.

"Yeah, right, you're a lazy stuck-up bastard. You never train." Uzumaki snorted.

"I do now. Unlike you, I'm actually going to pass this time because I'm working for it." I whipped back around to face him. He always got under my skin and I couldn't stop mouthing off either. It's a weakness of mine.

"Go to Hell! I'm going to be Hokage and then you'll be sorry." Uzumaki brandished the paintbrush at me like a kunai. It had orange paint on it.

I shrugged. "Yeah, I'm sure you will be."

His eyes became round with surprise and a smile crept on his face. "Really? You really think I'll become Hokage." He puffed up his chest. "Ha! It was only matter of time before you realized my greatness."

"Riiiight," I interrupted his pompous daydreaming. "I'm sure you will be Hokage because the Sandaime lets you do whatever the Hell you want. It's not because you're strong, smart, or hardworking. It's because you're the Sandaime's little favorite that you'll be Hokage someday."

A lidless bucket of paint flew at me. I juked to the right and it missed me. Uzumaki had a lot of buckets and before long we were dumping paint on each other. Rolling on the ground, punching, clawing, kneeing, and shouting. He won, of course, he always does.

Why can't I keep my mouth shut?


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

Uzumaki is at level 11 to my level 3. I hate my life.

I had plenty of time to look at his stats because I was being punished with him. Iruka-sensei had found us, covered in paint and fighting like street rats. We were clearing out one of the Academy's storage rooms. Everything had to be dusted. Boxes that had been closed for God knows how long needed to be opened up to check if anything worthwhile was in them.

I slipped the crowbar in my hand in the crack in the crate and pried it open. Dust shifted into a cloud that I breathed in. The sounds of my hacking and coughing brought over Iruka-sensei.

"Are you alright, Kensuke? I told you to cover your mouth and nose before dusting," he scolded.

"I'm," I coughed, "fine."

Iruka shook his head and peeked into the crate. "Well, looks like you found some very old training materials." He dipped his hand in and pulled out what looked like a vest.

[A weighted vest, used to train the body's strength and speed by putting it under constant pressure.] My 'Observe' ability told me as I stared at it. Iruka was saying much the same.

[Quest: Convince Iruka-sensei to let you keep the old training equipment. Reward: 100XP.]

"Ne, Sensei, if no one is using this junk, can I keep it?"

Iruka frowns at me and asks, "Why do you want this, Kensuke?"

"I'm trying to get stronger, you know I was working on the obstacle course yesterday to get better. I'm so weak, anything would help," I begged.

"This is a really old and outdated mode of training. It also takes a lot of willpower," Iruka warned.

"I'll do it!"

Iruka sighed and then smiled. "Well, it's good to see you so motivated. Keep writing down everything you find on the inventory sheet and ask me before you take anything. You can have the weight suit. In fact, I'm sure there's a scroll around here that has instructions on how to use it."

"Thanks, sensei," I said with honest earnestness.

Iruka waved off my thanks as he left to monitor Uzumaki. Quietly I closed the screen telling me of my successful quest and XP gain.

I hefted the dark gray vest and put it in my inventory. It was something I discovered the night before when I was trying to see how game-like my life had become. Along with quests and stats, I also had an inventory that appeared like a gridded blue rectangle.

As I rummaged through the crate I found other pieces of the suit and all the weights that went with it. They were incredibly heavy, so it took me a half hour to load them into my inventory. I found a scroll on "Ninja Conditioning Using Weight Suits" which luckily I had the minimum stats to learn. Seeing as the boxes forming a low wall around me would hide me from prying eyes, I decided to put on the suit with the lowest weights.

When I hovered my fingers over the suit icon a window popped up asking me if I wanted to 'equip' the suit. I said yes and the suit appeared underneath my clothes automatically. Then when I hovered my fingers over the weights, a window asked me how much weight I wanted to equip. I made my selection and instantly felt my legs, torso, and arms being dragged down. Man, it was the lowest setting and I already felt it was too much.

With a sigh I went back to dusting off boxes and crates, while opening them to inventory what was inside. I found trap-making, taijutsu, and knife-fighting scrolls that they used in the old days, but since I had the current versions of those scrolls, they were useless to me.

Two hours later I was thoroughly bored and exhausted when I came upon the last crate in my section. It had been buried under everything, including old training posts, target boards, and weight machines. Since it was the last box in my area I was excited to inventory it and report to Iruka. A nice bit of XP was waiting for me too.

The box was filled with scrolls and had one smaller box inside it. All the scrolls had a cloth tie around them with a symbol I see every day on the flak jackets of chunnin and jounin. Picking up one I used 'observe' on it: [Beginner Whirlpool Temple Style Qi Gong. Qi Gong is the art of cultivating life-energy that connects everything in the universe and applying it to spiritual, martial, and healing practices. Requires 50 INT and WIS to learn, gives positive modifiers to INT, WIS, STR, VIT, & DEX.]

[Alert: By chance you have stumbled upon a powerful technique. Your LUK stat has increased from '0' to '8']

"Holy Shit!" I gasped out loud. Just finding this thing increased my luck?! And look at the technique! So many positive modifiers at just the basic level. I used observe on the other scrolls, many were copies but I found the Intermediate level scroll of the skill, it required 150 INT and WIS to learn. Hurriedly I hid two copies each of the beginner and intermediate level into my inventory. I figured that I would end up turning one to dust when I got around to having the stats to learn it but I wanted to have one as a back up, just in case.

Unable to contain my excitement and curiosity, I opened the small box. The inside of the box was covered in some soft velvety cloth. Two scrolls were in the box.

[You have found Advanced Whirlpool Temple Qi Gong. 300 INT & WIS required to learn. Only someone of Uzumaki blood can unseal this scroll.]

[You have found Divine Whirlpool Temple Qi Gong. 500 INT & WIS required to learn. Only someone of Uzumaki blood can unseal this scroll.]

[You have stumbled upon legendary level techniques. Your LUK increases by 20 points.]

My hands trembled as I put away the small box with the two scrolls into my inventory. This is the sort of thing that kids dream of, that they read in comics, or watch on cartoons: of finding a secret super power. For the moment I didn't even consider that I had something that I couldn't even use, that even if I somehow raised my INT and WIS to 500, I wouldn't be an Uzumaki and could not unseal the scrolls.

"KENSUKE! ARE YOU DONE YET! IRUKA-SENSEI IS GONNA BUY US LUNCH!" Uzumaki's voice tore me away from my reverie. Before I could reply he bounded into my corner and stopped to stare at me.

"Oi, what's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost," Uzumaki said. He suddenly paled. "You haven't really seen a ghost have you?"

"No," I said and shook my head. It was strange thinking that boy in front of me was the only one who could unlock the legendary scrolls in my possession. "I found something really cool, an awesome technique. Look, that box is filled with scrolls on it."

"Really! Awesome!" Uzumaki turned away from me and half dove into the box to grab at the scrolls.

Quickly I withdrew the two legendary scrolls from my inventory. "Hey, Uzumaki-"

"Damn it, why do you keep calling me Uzumaki, Naruto is finem dattebayo," he said without looking away from the Basic Qi Gong scroll he had open now.

"Right, sorry, Naruto. Since you're so much stronger than me, can you help me out?"

[You have created the Deception skill] _Go away stupid skill window._

Naruto was blushing. Eugh. I pushed on, "So can you put a little bit of your chakra in these scrolls. You have a lot more chakra than I do."

"You got it, Kensuke! Hey you're not really that bad." Naruto put his hand on top of the two scrolls I was holding out. With a burst chakra left his palm and covered the scrolls. The paper seals wrapped around the scrolls broke. I tried to unfurl the scrolls and they opened without problem.

"Thanks!" I slipped the two in my pocket as he went back to squinting at the basic Whirlpool Temple Qi Gong scroll in his hands.

"Boys, what are you up to?" Iruka came around the corner.

I let Naruto gush at Iruka about my discovery and tried to calm my racing heart. It was a good thing that Naruto was so gullible and trusting. He hadn't even asked to look at the scrolls he opened for me.

"Good job, Kensuke. You've found a rare piece of the Academy's history." Iruka patted me on the head after looking at the box. "A long time ago monks from Whirlpool village had taught at the Academy. It was a sign of the friendship between our two villages. I'm sure Sandaime-sama will be glad that we still have so many instructional scrolls from back then." He picked up a basic scroll and handed it to me.

"Thanks, sensei." I bowed.

Iruka smiled at me and turned to Naruto. "You too, Naruto, good job. You should learn as much as you can from that scroll. After all it's from your clan's village."

Naruto looked dumbfounded. "I have a clan? Why didn't you tell me?"

Iruka smacked his head. "Idiot, I've taught you the history of Whirlpool village and the Uzumaki clan at least three times."

I ignored their ritual of abuse and friendship. Everyone knew Naruto was Iruka's favorite. I followed them as we made our way to the ramen stand while I dreamed of all I would be capable of with the scrolls in my inventory.

(oOo)

Lunch was good, surprisingly. I've never been to the ramen stand before so I didn't know there was such a cute girl who worked there. She treated Naruto and me like we were little boys, which we are, damn it all. That doesn't mean I couldn't enjoy the view. I have a feeling the ramen stand and Ayame are going to become a favorite haunt of mine.

"Alright, boys, I better see you on time tomorrow. You meet your new classmates. And, Naruto, try and be more like Kensuke this year, you see how hard he's working and how motivated he is?" Iruka said as we were parting after lunch.

"Hey! I work hard!" Naruto pointed his finger at Iruka. "I'm tons better than this lazy jerk."

I cursed under my breath. _Sensei, don't compliment me in front of Naruto. That will just make him prank me to prove his superiority over me._ They way Naruto is glaring at me means he's forgotten our moment of camaraderie in the storage room.

"Looks to me like he's working harder and he might surpass you on your spars," Iruka said. All I heard was nails in my coffin, slamming home.

"Ma, I'm sure Naruto will surprise you, Iruka-sensei. Well, I better be going, have to train," I said.

"See what I mean?" Iruka said as he waved goodbye.

"I'll show you…" I ignored whatever else Naruto was going to say. I know Iruka is trying to motivate Naruto by comparing him to me, but honestly that's not how Naruto works. He would rather mess up my things, beat the crap out of me in taijutsu to prove he's better, than to study and work hard.

I guess I will be paying for Iruka's good intentions at some point in the near future. I would have to be careful in class tomorrow; I wonder how the new kids will be. If I'm not wrong, Naruto has a crush on a girl in that class. I've seen him get clobbered more than a few times after classes by the girl in the year behind us. I smile to myself, that's one girl I want to make friends with. Anyone who puts Uzumaki in his place is a friend of mine.

oOo

Back at the Academy training grounds I bring up my stats to see what all has changed:

Kensuke

Academy Student

Age: 13

 **LVL 3**

STR 6

DEX 6

VIT 6

INT 27

WIS 35

LUK 28

PTS 0

Well my physical stats are better than yesterday. Still not good by any definition, especially because Naruto's physical stats are in the double digits. Given that he wasn't even a higher ranked student in class means that the others are going to be even better.

My vastly improved luck makes me happy though. As for the rest, all I can do is put in the work. The weight suit has been dragging me down, I don't think I'm going to run the obstacle course with this thing on. Maybe I will try that in a few days. Until then I have to grind skills I've gained from several new scrolls. After raising my physical stats the day before I was able to absorb the beginners taijutsu, thrown weapons, and Academy ninjutsu scrolls.

I used the running track to go through the new exercises I had learned from the weight-suit conditioning scroll. In fifteen minutes I was out of health points and had to rest half an hour before I could continue. Then I walked over to the target range and practiced throwing kunai and shuriken, I laughed in delight when I struck the target more times than I ever had before. No bull's eyes yet but it was only a matter of grinding.

The low vitality really got in the way of training because I became tired so quickly. After thrown weapons I worked on taijutsu drills, which were murder with the suit. Again, I had to rest for half an hour. I started making good use of my rest periods soon by looking through the Beginners Whirlpool Temple Qi Gong scroll. Sure, I didn't have the 50 INT and WIS I needed to simply absorb the scroll, but I figured I could learn _something_ just by reading it the old fashioned way.

After reading the same three paragraphs in my fourth rest period a new skill alert came up [Through diligent study you have created the Novice Meditation skill. This skill increases chakra and health regeneration and adds positive modifiers to INT and WIS]

Yes! Now I have something I can really grind while I'm resting.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent in the same way. I cycled through the main academy disciplines of taijutsu, ninjutsu, weapons, and my new skills, the weight-suit conditioning work and meditation. My physical stats went up by 2 points each and my mental stats by 1 point each.

I was satisfied, the sun had just set, and I was wondering if it would be too weird to go back to the ramen stand for dinner.

[The sun has set and you have entered an Illusionary Dimension between the living and the dead. The regret and rage of souls that died at the Academy has transformed into zombies. You will not be able to leave until you kill them.]

"What the fuck!" I swore at the blue screen. The night sky suddenly became a roiling black and red, there was a palpable sense of danger and bloodlust in the air, I felt the same pressure on my mind as when Dai-san had been about to kill me.

And the smell… _God_ …it was like rotten fish and offal and everything nasty you could think of. I covered my nose and mouth with a piece of cloth. Looking around I saw there were kids in the Academy classrooms looking out at me from the windows. Someone broke the window and tumbled out of it. It was only the first floor so it wasn't really a fall.

It was a kid, an Academy student, from the looks of it maybe a year or two younger than me. My observe skill told me more about him:

[Unnamed Academy Student

Lvl 4

An academy student who died in the Kyuubi attack. His fear and regret have combined with the remains of the Kyuubi chakra to make him into an undead creature of hate. He cares nothing for who he was in life and morality. All he knows is terrible hate for the living and equally terrible hunger for flesh.]

It felt like someone else was moving my body, but in reality it was just me, as I launched a kunai at the kid's head. It sank straight in the middle of his forehead, snapping his neck back. I saw the red health bar over his head drop a third of the way to zero. Quickly I launched two more kunai. One hit, the other missed, but the zombie kid didn't wait for me to attack anymore.

He screamed and it made my heart skip a beat at how lonely and animalistic it sounded. Then he ran at me with speed I wouldn't expect. I barely got my kunai up to guard my neck as he snapped his teeth at me. They gnawed at my kunai and his saliva dripped on my arm. My clothes and skin burned from the chakra that surrounded him.

I kicked him away and shot the kunai at him. It struck his heart and the red health bar fell to zero, which made him explode into dust and vanish. There was something left on the ground where he had fallen but I didn't wait to see. Three more academy student-zombies had made their way out of the classroom and were running at me in a weird loping and broken way.

"I'm not dying today!" I shouted and readied myself for their attack.

oOo

AN: If anyone is curious: this is not a bashing fic. I'm just trying to show what Naruto may look like from a civilian academy student's point of view. We all know Naruto was an obnoxious kid. Most adults saw his annoying traits as 'lovable' eventually. But what about those who were weaker and closer to the same age as Naruto? Would they find a pranking Naruto who was the Sandaime's favorite orphan lovable?

Kensuke is someone who watched Naruto anime in his old life but he doesn't have all his memories. So he doesn't know about Naruto's special circumstances. If he succeeds in becoming a genin he will have his memories back. And won't it be interesting when he finds out that he has been shunning the ninja world's messiah? ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N. I changed Kensuke's age to 13 and have updated the last few chapters with the change as well. Naruto and Kensuke will be 13, the rest of the Rookie 9 will be 12.**

 **Chapter 3**

I have been fighting for three hours. Sometimes running and sneaking away to regenerate my health and chakra, but they always find me before I can be 100%.

Shards of wood pierce my skin, I scream and kawarimi again. The log I replaced myself with is shredded by kunai and shuriken. My chakra is low, I can only do three more replacements. They are at level 8 now and their shuriken fly at speeds I can hardly dodge.

Alerts pop up and I ignore them. I don't have time to look at what they want to tell me when _I'm about to be killed!_ I knock aside the kunai coming at my face, but it's followed by a roundhouse kick which connects. I tumble through the air and when I fall I keep rolling until I hit a tree. It's Konoha, trees are fucking everywhere. Blindly I replace myself. When my eyes stop rattling in their sockets I see that the tree I had smashed against is pierced with kunai. My quick kawarimi probably saved my life, again.

My back is to a wall, in front of my are four LVL 10 Academy students. Their health bars are nearly full. The smell from them is overpowering and the red glow of their eyes is terrifying. I'm down to my last kunai, I only have a fifth of my HP left, and only two more replacement techniques before my chakra is exhausted. Our instructors had warned us against chakra exhaustion. So really I only had one more ninjustu technique I could safely do.

The four run at me and I start running along the wall. I can't let them trap me. My low DEX score is really killing me. I need a better weapon, I need a sword, or a spear, or something that can help me fight multiple enemies. Where does Mizuki-sensei put the weapons he showed us for class? I look behind me, they are almost biting at my heels. I am going to get eaten alive.

Sweat is dripping from my brows into my eyes so much it feels like rain. I swipe it away and feel my skin burn from contact, all the scratches hurt when touched. I have blood in my mouth and my left hand is aching from the bite one zombie took out of me.

"I hate you…" I pant as I stop running. There's no running from them, if I can't kill them, I won't win. I'm not fast enough to run. "I hate all this…this world…ninja…the Academy…fucking Dai who wants to sell me to whores…"I run out of breath and just glare at the LVL 10 zombies who are slowly coming at me, recognizing that I'm done. "Fuck you, fucking zombies…fucking kyuubi zombies." I cast around for anything I can use. We are at the entrance of the Academy. The part of the grounds that is kept looking nice by gardeners to show off to visitors. The grass is a lively green, the trees along the wide path tall, the gravel is white. It's scenic, a wonderful place to die.

 _I need something! Give me a god damn weapon!_ I shout inside my soul as the zombies come into striking range.

Something shifts inside me. Green chakra flows out of my hands. Instinctively I wrap my hands around the shaft that is forming. In seconds I'm holding a cross-shaped spear - great for piercing or slashing attacks. I spin the chakra weapon in my hands. It blurs, leaving green contrails in the air.

"Haha!"

[You have created a chakra weapon called Jumonji Yari. Weapon is created and sustained by your chakra and willpower. Chakra Weapon skill created: LVL 1, 0.0%XP]

I lunge forward and spin the spear around my chest. The haft of the spear slices through one zombie as if the spear were made of super-hot fire. The spear head beheads the second, and the blade jutting out from the side of the crosshead pierces the third. The first two turn to dust as my hits were critical hits.

I shuffle back using the dragon-step as Mizuke-sense had taught us. Center of gravity is low and feet close to the body. The zombie I had pierced is stumbling, fluid is leaking from the hole I made in him. I press my advantage and thrust the spear through his center mass. He turns to dust.

The last LVL 10 is left. She is baring her teeth at me. "Go to Hell, bitch!" I swipe at her legs with the spear. She leaps and clears the blade. I change directions and she brings up an arm which she loses to the burning green chakra of the weapon.

[Warning: Chakra levels have dropped to critical levels. Chakra weapon will disappear in five seconds.]

Taking my eyes of the zombie to read the message was a mistake. She rushed forward, slipped under the guard I made with my spear, and tackled me to the ground. I press the shaft of the spear between her teeth so she can't bite me. Her skin burns from the chakra and my skin burns from the kyuubi chakra animating her.

The spear suddenly disappears in motes of green light - I've run out of chakra!

And then there is only pain. She's biting me right where the neck meets the shoulder. Her teeth tearing at the meat and my blood is flowing. I try to roll, but she's stronger and is on top. Her throat moves as she swallows my flesh and I want to throw up at the sight.

No.

 _NO!_

I stab her with my remaining kunai. She doesn't seem to notice and is eating through my shoulder. I stab her again, weakly.

No…

No…please…

With the last dregs of my energy I stab her temple. She halts in feasting on my body and turns to dust before vanishing.

My body shakes and trembles. I'm crying, oh God, why is this happening? Great sobs leave me. I lie there waiting to die because I'm bleeding from many wounds, the greatest of which is the one on my shoulder and neck. I've lost a hand and a shoulder to the cannibals.

[Congratulations: You have survived your first experience with the Illusory Dimension between life and death. Reward 1000XP and Health Potion that restores 50% of your HP capacity]

I blink rapidly, trying to get rid of the tears and find the health potion. It's sitting on my chest. A red colored fluid is in a glass-stoppered bottle. With fingers trembling I tip over the bottle and greedily drink the potion. Hmmm, it tastes of strawberries. At once my breathing gets easier, half the pain disappears. I sit up and find a book glowing a green sheen by my feet.

[You have found the Illusionary Dimension creation and escape instruction manual. Would you like to learn it?] With a sigh I put away the skill book in my inventory. I don't have the patience for dealing with it. I get up to go looking for bandages. I don't know if I'm ever going to get full use of my arm back, given the way the shoulder has been chewed out. At least it stopped bleeding after I ingested the potion. I ignore the emotional breakdown I was having just a moment ago. I have to survive.

As I walk through the grounds that I ran through during my fight and the places I killed zombies, I find piles of coins and other small items, like a soul crystal. The zombies left behind money and crystals? Is this part of the game system? It takes me half an hour to pick up all the money and crystals and find bandages.

When I try to leave through the Academy gates I get another message: [You cannot leave the Illusory Dimension without using the Illusory Dimension Escape technique.] Great. Ok then. I open up my inventory and pull out the scroll book and learn it. Just like other skill books and scrolls, it turns to dust and vanishes. A breeze flows through my mind and I know the ID create and escape techniques. Raising my hand in the air I gather the chakra that I have thankfully regenerated after the fight. "ID Escape," I shout, trying to pull in the magic that created the dimension. It implodes, rushing toward my hand, with a strange feeling, as if something is crawling up my arm, the dimension breaks.

The sky returns to its usual grays and blacks of nighttime instead of the red and black it had been inside the dimension. I hurry back to my apartment, I need rest and to stop thinking about how parts of me were eaten tonight. I will deal with it tomorrow.

oOo

* * *

[Good morning. You have slept in you bed. Your HP and CP have been fully restored. Quest: Arrive at the Academy early. Rewards: 30XP, increased respect from Academy staff. Failure: Decreased respect from Academy staff and instructors less likely to help you.]

"Gwah!" I shout at the bell that rung with the alert message. "To Hell with you, I'm sleeping." I turn over and pull up my sheets to hide my face. After three breaths I realize that I'm wide awake and that I'm lying on the shoulder that was almost eaten completely away the night before.

Getting out of bed I run to the bathroom and pull off my bloodstained shirt. I hadn't changed clothes last night, being too tired and mentally scarred to care. There were two surprises awaiting me in the mirror. One, my neck, shoulder and hand were completely healed. Two, I was still wearing my weighted vest.

Which means that all during my time fighting for my life in the illusory dimension I had been at a self-enforced handicap because of the weight suit. "I am a moron," I said solemnly at the mirror. Luckily, the vest, leg, and arm portions of the weight suit had protected my body underneath them. So, in a way, they were like armor, functioning more like greaves, forearm protectors, and armor vest. Yeah, sure, let's go with that, makes me feel less like an idiot.

Still I called up inventory and removed the vest. [Your STR and DEX has risen by 4 points over the last 18 hours of wearing it.] I smiled, at least I got something awesome out of wearing it during my fight. I checked myself over in the mirror. The boy who looked back in the reflection was above average for his age, had chocolate brown hair that was soft like a girls, it was parted in the middle with the excess pulled back in a shot ponytail. His eyes were light brown and skin tan – he was very monochromatic. Usually he was a weedy, string-bean thing, but now he had muscle on his frame and his coat-hanger shoulders were finally filling out.

With a smirk at the improvements I saw in my body I took out my hair from the ponytail and hit the shower. The mirror had shown me that I had no signs of the life or death struggle I had experienced the night before. The game system was awesome, if you put aside the fact that it had trapped me in a nightmare dimension until I killed all the enemies within.

In the shower I brought up my stats to see where I stood:

Kensuke

Academy Student

Age: 13

 **LVL 11**

STR 16

DEX 16

VIT 12

INT 30

WIS 38

LUK 28

PTS 40

Wow! I leveled up eight times the night before and improved my physical stats all over. Apparently fighting for your life for three hours while wearing a weight suit really forces your body to work hard. I'm tempted to put all my points into Vitality. Last night the one thing that almost got me killed more than anything else was my low vitality because it translates into low health points. Simply I was gassed too fast and too soon.

On the other hand I have a little over what I need to get my INT and WIS to 50, the point at which I can learn the Whirlpool Temple Style Qi Gong. It is a technique that improves strength, dexterity, vitality, intelligence, and wisdom. It's a tough decision.

I change water temperature from hot to cold to refresh myself. Well I have the ID escape and create skill now, if I get into another dimension I can just escape. Plus, I'm feeling optimistic.

All washed and dried I stand in front of the mirror again and bring up my stats. 12 go into WIS to bring it up to 50: [You have reached 50 Wisdom threshold, a special skill is unlocked, 'Battle Awareness.' This skill grants you a magically enhanced awareness of your enemies and surroundings.] That's sweet.

Now I'm curious what upping my INT to 50 will give me. Bringing that up takes a whole 20 points. [You have reached 50 Intelligence threshold. Chakra affinity is unlocked. Using and creating chakra techniques will be easier, and techniques will use less chakra.] I understood the value of this skill after the way my chakra spear died the night before because of low chakra. Nothing like your weapon failing you in a life or death situation than to make you care about chakra control.

Eight points were left which I put in vitality. My body visibly improved as I watched it in the bathroom mirror. My skin began to show a healthy glow, body mass grew, and I felt like I was filled with energy. Wow, I knew that even with adding points my vitality is low compared to Naruto whose is in triple digits. If I'm already feeling awesome, he must feel like he owns the world all the time.

Dressing becomes an interesting problem. My clothes are shredded from the night before. That was my last set of long sleeved shirts and pants. All I have are shorts and collared T-shirts. Luckily I'm in Fire country and that means even winters are warm. The problem is that if I wear those clothes my weight suit will be visible. I don't want to advertise my training regimen.

An idea occurs to me, I can cover the leg and arm weights with ninja bandages. They are a common accessory; ninja use them pretty regularly. Happy with my idea I get out my khaki shorts, a green collared T-shirt that happens to have red swirl on it, and black sandals. After dressing I equip the weight suit and then cover the gray weight holsters on the arms and legs with black bandages.

Last but not the least, it is time to learn that scroll I had found. I take it out of the inventory and use observe on it once again: [Beginner Whirlpool Temple Style Qi Gong. Qi Gong is the art of cultivating life-energy that connects everything in the universe and applying it to spiritual, martial, and healing practices. Requires 50 INT and WIS to learn, gives positive modifiers to INT, WIS, STR, VIT, & DEX.]

I press the 'learn' button, the scroll turns to dust and vanishes. I feel a breeze enter my mind and this time it feels like it's going straight into my soul. I gasp as for a moment I feel connected to _something_ massive and endless. I'm the water in the clouds, I'm wind between the mountain peaks, I'm the trees sinking my roots deep into the earth, I'm the heartbeats of men, women, animals, and – The vision abruptly ends. My breath is coming in short spurts as if I've run a million miles in the desert. As soon as I realize how out of sorts I am, I shut my eyes, fix my posture, and breath slowly in a rhythm I had just learned from the scroll.

[Whirlpool Temple Qi Gong skill has been created. It has enhanced your Chakra Affinity and Battle Awareness skills. When active a 30% positive modifier is added to all stats but luck. A 15% positive modifier is added passively. As the skill is leveled up and experience is gained the modifiers will improve.]

My spine straightened and my body aligned itself in a way I never had before. My weight was distributed equally. When I walked it was in a gait that was different than what mine had been. As I left the apartment I looked at my other skills and saw that things like taijutsu and weapon handling had leveled up the night before. I knew that my taijutsu practice would be improved by Qi Gong knowledge as well.

As I got out onto the street I could feel the ninja around me in a given radius. I suppose this is my battle awareness. My eyes saw more, my hearing picked up faraway conversations, the wind on my skin warned me of changing weather. A part of Qi Gong was practicing it in motion. As I walked I meditated.

Mornings in Konoha were always a beautiful sight. Trees with wide green leaves dotted the landscape, growing as wide and large as skyscrapers that they butted up against. The leaves glinted like jewels as sunlight bounced off of them. A gentle wind, still slightly chilly and moist from the early morning dew, danced through the village. I breathed it in and smiled. Stopping at a bakery I had delicious breakfast and ignored my observe ability telling me that the pastry had an HP value. I wanted to immerse myself in the peaceful moment and I did.

By the time I arrived at the Academy I had already had a better day than any other since I had been sold to Konoha. Truly Qi Gong is a powerful art.

There were a few students in my new class already. One had pink hair. I walked down the aisle splitting the classroom in two. She was sitting up front. She heard my steps and turned. Her green eyes and pink hair were unique in an otherwise plain face. I suppose she is cute in a little kid sort of way.

"Hello." I smiled. "I'm joining your class. My name is Kensuke." I gave a proper head bow one shows to equals. The observe ability was already showing me her name and background. I knew she wasn't a noble, so I wouldn't be offending her.

"Ah." She stood hurriedly and bowed. "My name is Haruno Sakura. Welcome."

"It's nice to meet you Sakura-san. I have to admit I've seen you before. I'm a bit of a fan of yours." I smirked. She blushed but before she could stammer out anything I said, "You know a classmate of mine, Uzumaki Naruto."

Her eye started twitching and her fists clenched. "O-Oh. I see." She cleared her throat. "He's your friend?"

"Nope, not at all." I grinned. "I really liked seeing you put him in his place after school let out."

She breathed in relief. "That moron…I was afraid you were his friend and were like him." She made a curious moue. "Ano, what's your problem with Naruto?"

"Eh, he likes pranking me. He says I'm too serious and stuck up."

She made a fist in front of her chest. "Don't worry, just leave him to me."

"Oh, I think he would like it very much if you took him on," I teased.

"Kensuke-kun!" she protested with a blush.

Huh? I'm already 'Kensuke- _kun_ '? That was quick. "Sorry, Sakura-chan, I couldn't help it. You're pretty cute when you blush by the way."

"Aa." She ducked her head and mumbled something.

"Anyway, do you mind telling me what you have been covering in class lately?" I threw her a rope that she grabbed onto with both hands. She sat me down next to her and soon was giving me a review of the year.

[You have acquired one friend, Haruno Sakura. Your friend list has improved by 100%. 30XP earned.]

[You have acquired a tutor, Haruno Sakura. INT improved by 10% when studying with tutor. 20XP earned.]

Sakura is at LVL 25. She is stronger and better than me in every measure except, perhaps, deception and flattery. She is also very earnest in the way she is going through notes with me. I don't usually care for kids her age but she is not nearly as annoying as others. My higher INT and WIS mean that I'm retaining a lot of what she's quickly showing me. Studying will definitely be easier now.

As it gets closer to the start of class time more people start trickling in. I use my observe ability on all of them. The class has a ridiculous amount of clan heirs and it shows in high levels all around. The highest so far is a Yamanaka Ino at LVL 30. She shot a look toward Sakura and me when she came into the room as if she were surprised. Then with a smirk she turned away to talk to the gaggle of girls that surrounded her.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, is that girl your friend?"

She doesn't look up from her notes, as if she's purposefully looking away from the blonde in question. "We were friends but I broke it off."

"Why?"

"We like the same boy and I'm not going to lose to her." Sakura's eyes were filled with a fierceness that I couldn't respect. She broke a friendship over some stupid crush? She is a silly child after all.

Here I am thinking I've found someone not a total waste of space and then I find out she dropped a friend over a boy. "So, is it worth it? Losing her as a friend? You don't miss her?"

Sakura doesn't answer. She closes her notebook that she was showing me and looks straightforward.

I sigh. "Fine. It isn't my business. I guess I'm just afraid you will drop me as a friend for some silly reason too."

She whirls to face me and her eyes are wide. "That's not true! Sasuke-kun isn't a stupid reason."

I can't help myself, I start laughing, and then I eat a punch to my face. My head snaps back from the force of it. "Ouch! Fine, fine! He's not a stupid reason."

[You have provoked a reaction from Inner Sakura. 10XP earned.] Seriously? Getting punched in the face gives me XP?

Sakura is glaring at me, so I do what I do best and use my mouth to get myself in trouble: "You know Sakura-chan, you're pretty and you hit very hard. You also look beautiful when you're mad, are you trying to get me to fall in love with you?"

Sakura sputters and turns a shade of red that clashes horribly with her pink hair. [Your relationship with Yamanaka Ino has improved. 10XP] I look over my shoulder to find Ino there snickering at Sakura and me. She waves and winks, I wave back. Before more can be said there is a sudden upsurge of noise in the room. All eyes turn toward the door.

Actually when I look around more carefully, only the female population's eyes turn toward the door. The guys are studiously ignoring the excitement. One boy is actually asleep at his desk. A boy walks into the room and girls swamp him. Sakura is out of her chair, has somersaulted over me, and is already at the boy's side.

The boy is Uchiha Sasuke. Level 40.

Damn, what a monster. I almost died last night fighting Level 10 academy students. His stats show that he is the top student in class. I have to break into top 15 ranks, if he sits at number 1, breaking into a ranked position is going to be very hard. I turn away from the madness and begin meditating. I have to get my stats high as quickly as possible.

* * *

A.N: Regarding levels. As in canon, power level creep was ridiculous. Even in The Gamer power creep is fairly high from what we can see. So don't be surprised if we start seeing the top guys in the thousands. I'm basically looking at the guys in The Gamer and seeing how they rank against Naruto characters and doing some approximation.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

I usually sit in the back but since I had sat down to talk to Sakura at the front, I was stuck there for the rest of the day. So I had to at least seem attentive. At first I thought that would be tiresome, but actually with my new mental strength, I can stay focused much better than before. I never really had any problems with the material taught in class even before the Gamer powers. My issue had been that I didn't care. Now that Dai intends to sell me to a whorehouse if I don't pass my exams, I won't be slacking off.

Frankly, the academic material is pretty simple. There is a lot of memorization of ninja rules, flora and fauna of Konoha and its major enemies, geography, common tactics and strategies. The focus of the Academy is on physical skills. Stealth exercises, trap-making which required a nice bit of math, taijutsu, ninjutsu, weapon handling. So on and so forth, all things a well-mannered growing boy needs to kill his neighbors and enemies. Sometimes I really don't understand how they can be so nonchalant about all this.

During taijutsu practice we got in rows. I joined at the end of the formation as I was new to the class. However as we started running through the kata I felt myself flowing from movement to movement with ease and familiarity. Then Mizuki-sensei put us in lines to go up to a pole with three targets on it to practice our kicks on. A low kick, a high kick, and a jumping or spin kick – it depended on your skill level what you did.

Uchiha Sasuke did some sort of a double spin jump kick and hit all three targets. He got a head nod and 'good' from Mizuki-sensei. Yamanaka Ino followed him and managed something similar, her speed was slower, but it only made her kicks look that much more dramatic; it was as if she were floating in the air. Inuzuka Kiba followed her and broke the target by the force of his kick – yeesh! Mizuki-sensei let him have it.

I checked out my Taijutsu skill level to find that after using it so much the night before and learning Qi Gong it had leveled up. I think I might be able to make the highest target. I've never been able to do before. When it's my turn I take a running start and do what my body is telling me it can do. A jumping crescent kick marks the top target, I spin with the motion and sidekick the target below that, and as I fall to the ground I do a sweep kick on the low target. Mizuki nods, "Good work, Kensuke, finally beginning to learn, eh?"

"Yes, sir," I say with a wide smile. It really did feel amazing to manage that even with the weight-suit weighing me down.

"Keep working, your kicks lack power. Those were just love taps."

"Yes, sir." And just like that my good mood is shot. I got back in line. He was going to give us all four chances before sending us to the obstacle course.

[Improved relationship with Mizuki-sensei. 20XP] [Quest: Show more force in your kicks in the next three tries. Reward: Better relationship with Mizuki-sensei, chance to get the intermediate floating leaf taijutsu scroll increases]

I accepted the quest and quietly de-equipped the weight suit. There are roughly fifty students in class, so the line is long enough for me to use Whirlpool Temple style chakra reinforcement in my muscles. Gathering chakra from outside of oneself is a strange experience; it almost makes you forget about yourself. It took a lot of effort for me to stay in the moment and yet connect to the great stream of chakra connecting the cosmos.

When I got to the target pole again my entire focus narrowed to those three targets. I took and running start again, obeyed what my body was telling me it could do, and my kicks seem to explode with chakra. Three loud 'thwaks' announced that I had hit my targets successfully. I breathed out, letting go of the mental state I was in. Mizuki was looking at me with a raised brow and a smile.

"Huh, Kensuke, you're in the mood to please today? Dai did say that he had a talk with you. He must've lit up a fire under your ass," Mizuki-sensei commented and laughed.

"You could say that again," I groused.

"Alright, show me that on your next two tries. This better not be a fluke, Kensuke."

"You got it, chief." I scampered back in line.

oOo

At the end of school day Mizuki-sensei ended up giving me the next scroll in the series of Floating Leaf Style Taijutsu. It required 20 DEX and STR to learn. I was still a few points short of that. So I put it away in my inventory and went out to work on my physical conditioning with the weight suit equipped.

Let me tell you, doing pull-ups with weights on your body is a special kind of torture. My shoulders are screaming, my teeth are clenched as I wheeze oxygen through them. I wouldn't be doing any of this if it wasn't for Dai and to get my memories back. I'm just not built for hard work.

I like comics and games, I should be at home, reading Icha Icha series. Fuck, I haven't even thought about my guilty pleasure for two days. Before it was the one thing I looked forward to after a day at school. Here I am, doing burpees, push ups, somersaults instead.

[Through diligent hard exercise in a weight suit your STR has risen by 1]

"Woohoo," I gasp.

Nightfall is five hours away. If I'm right, I will be forced into an Illusory Dimension again. I have five hours to raise my stats and get some food before going dungeon clearing. Thank Goodness for the Qi Gong skill. I can recover my HP and CP so much faster while I practice that during my rest periods.

oOo

It was just another day at the weapon's shop. The shopkeeper was bored out of her mind until a boy burst in through the door. He was drenched in sweat, and when he grasped the counter edge to steady himself the counter flipped up. The shopkeeper slapped her hand on the counter to stop it from falling.

The kid slumped against the glass showcase under the counter. Hikari, the shopkeeper, stared at him for a moment. "Kid, if I have to scrape you off of my floor I will charge you."

"Just a minute," the boy gasped. "Need –hah- air."

The boy didn't have a hitiate so he wasn't a genin yet. Academy student then, she found them annoying, but they were usually easy marks too. He wasn't wearing a clan symbol so he probably didn't have anyone backing him up either. Hmm, easy money is easy money, she thought. "So, why are you here, kid?"

"Need armor to – hah – protect from zombies." He shakily stood off the ground.

Hikari gave him a blank stare then hummed. "Zombies, eh? Nasty bastards," she said. _What happened to kids playing ninja, it's zombie this, vampire that, these days. No matter, if he wants a costume to play zombie hunting, I'll make a few ryo off of him._

"You," he took a deep breath, "you actually know about zombies? I just said that…"

"Don't underestimate zombies, brat," she snapped in fake anger. "I've been through the wars. I've seen some real shit."

"Yes, ma'am." He blinked stupidly at her. _Pretty eyes, if he fills out the girls will probably fall for 'em._

"So, zombies…you need an axe or a hammer, a sickle when they get close. Nothing feels better than beheading a zombie with a sickle." She shivered. "Perfect assassination tool."

"A sickle…really?" The boy arched his brow. "Well I'm with you on the axes, I used a Jumonji Yari myself. I was surrounded by four of them."

"Good weapon, three blades for the price of one and all the advantages of a spear." She walked around the counter and grabbed him by the arm. "Only problem is that ninja aren't always in a space a spear user can cut loose. You need a weapon that's versatile."

"Umm, where are you dragging me?"

"To the anti-zombie weapon display, what else?" _Hehe, this is actually kind of fun. Wonder what useless thing I can sell him. No self-respecting ninja uses an axe, my fool husband loves making them though, maybe I can get the kid to buy one._

"What is _that?_ " the boy suddenly stopped at a display.

"That is something my damned husband made. Chakra conducting razor wire that's so thin it's a pain to work with. Tenten-chan wanted him to make it, she wanted to be like some cartoon guy named Walter, Tenten is my daughter by the way."

"Walter?! From the Hellsing cartoon?"

Hikari sighed in annoyance. "Is that the one with the vampires?"

"Yes!" the boy went over and picked up the bracelets the wire was spooled around. "Oh and there's a skill book on how to use them too!"

"There is?" Hikari didn't remember any manual for the Walter-wire but when she looked, sure enough, a black book was lying right under the bracelets. "Anyway, you wanted armor and an axe."

"I'm not so sure about the axe. Wouldn't it have the same problem as a spear in close quarters?" the boy asked, having taken the bracelets and the manual.

Hikari smirked inside. Thank kami for fools, now that damned toy wire won't stay on her shelf gathering dust until she had her husband melt it. "You can diversify. Have an axe for zombie killing out in the open, and maybe a short sword for a more urban setting."

"Well, I really just wanted some armor…" the kid trailed off as she dragged him toward the pole arms.

In the end Hikari sent the boy, Kensuke, off with a double-headed axe, the razor wire bracelets, the light armor set ANBU typically bought, metal reinforced gloves, and a ninjato. She sold the axe and razor wire bracelets at a loss because no one was ever going to buy such impractical weapons. But on the balance getting some money back was better than no money.

oOo

I think I've been taken to the cleaners. I'm back at the Academy right before sunset. I had originally gone to the weapons store to pick up some armor but I walked out with far too many weapons. I'm such a sucker for a pretty face, she talked me into buying an axe and a sword. I can make weapons out of my chakra! What do I need to buy weapons for? She took all the money I had earned killing zombies the night before.

Cursing myself for my idiocy at just saying yes to the gorgeous woman, I started absorbing the skill books I had purchased at the store. I had one for the axe, the ninjato, the razor-wire, and I bought one for a crosshead spear as well. I equipped my new armor over my weight suit.

The sun set and I felt the change in the air. I was back in the zombie dimension.

[You have entered an illusory dimension between life and death. Zombies created from the rage and regret of the dead hunger for your soul. Defend yourself.]

I grinned as I pulled out the two-headed axe from my inventory. I already had the razor-wire bracelets on. I suppose having real weapons means I can save my chakra instead of using it on chakra weapons. Once I have increased my chakra capacity I will work on leveling up the chakra weapon skill.

As soon as I see a LVL 8 academy student zombie come around the corner of the academy, I rush at him. This time I'm not giving up on the initiative. My battle awareness is humming with the presence of enemies around me and their relative strength.

This time I won't get surrounded.

The axe cut through the zombie's neck without any resistance. Its weight and my force behind it made it a thing of beauty. Black blood sprayed across my armor and I couldn't stop smiling. Is this what winning feels like? I laughed and jumped to the next, axe kicking its head to force into position for an execution and then completed the setup with the axe. Heh, have to keep leveling up my taijustu as well. I won't be able to bring an axe to a taijutsu match after all. But in the mean time, I see a level 9.

I shift the axe to rest against the ground on my left side. I flick my right hand, using chakra to unfurl one microfiber-fine razor wire. It snakes through the air between us and whips the zombie. It falls in four pieces; cut along the path the razor wire had pierced her. This is far too much fun.

Another one shows up but my battle sense warns me that it isn't a threat, I use observe on it and find out that it's just an illusory clone. The air shifts behind me. I backflip to avoid a stream of kunai. In the air I use the kawarimi and appear behind the zombies that had attacked my back. The axe moves like feather in my hands as I cut them down. The technique scroll for the axe was awesome and my battle-lust is making the weight of the axe non-existent.

An hour later a LVL 15 academy student zombie shows up.

[Aburame Zombie. Aburame clan are known for their Destruction Beetles that they host inside their bodies. This Aburame zombie's insects have mutated due to the kyuubi chakra. They will suck your chakra dry and eat you alive.]

The sky filled with the noise of a hundred buzzing things. They were brown with red chakra glowing around their mandibles. They were also a foot long each.

Fuck me.

I put away my axe and jerked my hands to the side, using my chakra to unfurl as many wires as I could from the bracelets. I managed four on each hand and whipped them at the sky. They slicked through the hovering insects but as soon as the first of them died they dive-bombed me.

They are too many. God, I didn't think it could get worse than the night before but it can get so much worse. Demon-insects! Dead zombified demon insects! What did I do to deserve this?

My armor doesn't help as they take inch wide bites out of my body. I scream with my eyes shut, fearing they would pluck them out, and whip my razor wires back and forth. They are very effective but I'm fighting hundreds of man-eating creatures. The equation is not in my favor.

I pour chakra into my hands and form my chakra spear. Using my battle awareness I pinpoint where the Aburame host of the insects is standing. Without using my eyes and relying completely on the battle awareness I throw the spear. I hear the sick squelch of it impaling through a stomach.

The foot-long insects buzz angrily and attack me with even greater fury than before. I manifest another spear and swipe it in a spiral around myself, trying to create an impenetrable sphere of protection.

[The Aburame host has died. Without their link to a human host the destruction beetles will drop dead]

Just like the alert said in a moment the beetles started falling from the sky and turn to dust.

I sat heavily and started gathering chakra to heal myself using a healing technique I had learned from the Whirlpool Temple scroll. I was bleeding from too many places to count. Just that one Aburame who was only a few levels above me had almost drained my chakra to zero and killed me with his bugs.

As my chakra started recovering and wounds stopped bleeding I sensed more zombies. They felt as strong as the Aburame had. I stood and armed myself with kunai, if it was an Aburame, I was going to kill it first before trying to deal with his colony.

Two Aburame walked into view in a slow unhurried pace. Silently they raised their sleeves and clouds of insects, too large and deformed to be normal, came out. I sliced one's arm with the razor wire and launched kunai at the other. They moved quickly, ducking the projectiles.

Somehow I buried my fear and ran headfirst into the swarm to get to its hosts. The two Aburame zombies didn't stay still like the first one and were more than happy to engage in hand-to-hand combat. I felt bugs crawling on my back, getting under my shirt. The horror of it almost made me give up and roll on the ground all the while screaming mad. I charged up another crosshead spear and started fighting both of them at the same time.

My spear tore open one's jacket exposing dark skin with countless holes, from which insects were crawling out. The revealed skin writhed and I threw up. The Aburame, who has saliva dripping from his open mouth, took the chance and lunged at me. I cut him in half even as I was throwing up.

There was one more alive and the bugs were now crawling up and biting my legs. I was feeling woozy, as if I had a fever, probably because my chakra was dangerously low. I let the chakra spear disappear and pulled out the sword from my inventory. I don't have enough chakra to waste on chakra-constructs or chakra-using weapons like the razor wire.

My eyes had swollen up from the bites that were on my face now. I had to rely completely on battle awareness to fight the last remaining Aburame. Somehow I killed him and moments later the swarm died.

There were alerts but I couldn't see them. My mind had someone inside it screaming and jibbering while I was desperately trying to remember my Whirlpool Qi Gong lessons to heal myself.

oOo

After three hours I cleared out the dungeon. It was funny fighting zombies that just the day before were too much for me. Things change when you're at a higher level. But once the Aburame zombies arrived my good time turned into another horror flick. I thought getting eaten alive by human zombies was awful, but it didn't compare to giant beetles swarming my body.

Just like the day before I leveled up many times. I deserved it after the terror I experienced. I'm going to spend tomorrow searching for a fire or wind ninjutsu to deal with insect swarms. On the upside I improved nearly all my skills: I improved my weapon handling because of the axe and the razor wire, my taijutsu, ninjutsu, and battle awareness. I did it all wearing my weight suit, so my STR and DEX got some points in them too.

As I walked home I decided to check my stats:

Kensuke

Academy Student

Age: 13

 **LVL 19**

STR 25

DEX 25

VIT 28

INT 54

WIS 56

LUK 28

PTS 40

I decided to save my points and went to the Ramen stand. I needed to see something beautiful that night to wash away the ugliness of a mutated Aburame. Ayame was working the stand even that late. Her gentle smile and mischievous eyes made me feel a lot better about my life.

For a little while I forgot my trauma and enjoyed the company of a pretty girl.

oOo

[Good morning. You have spent the night in a meditative fugue. Your HP and MP are restored. Your WIS and INT have risen by 3 points because of seven hours spent in meditation.]

[Quest: Meet your tutor, Haruno Sakura, before classes for an early morning study session. Reward: Increased respect of Academy staff and closeness with Haruno Sakura. 30XP]

I breathed a sigh of relief as I came out of my meditative state. I had been too scared the night before to sleep. So I decided to use breathing exercises to calm myself. Soon after I began feeling that sense of connectedness to everything and it had lulled me into experiencing more of that vastness. So I ended up meditating all night.

Frankly it is hard to get out of bed. I don't really want to go to the Academy, I don't want to spend my afternoon training, and I really don't want to spend my evening in a death dimension getting eaten alive – again! Why would anyone want to be a ninja if you have to go through this? Seriously, they should have new Academy cadets meet an Aburame on their first day to show them what the ninja life is all about.

I stayed lying in bed until someone knocked on the door. Grumbling to myself I went to the door.

"Good morning!" a bright cheery voice greeted me. Yamanaka Ino was at my door with a big smile and a basket with something warm and toasted in it if my nose is right.

Now what does she want with me this early in the morning?


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N A guest reviewer figured out what Ino is there for. Kudos to you.**

 **CHAPTER 5**

I bow to the ninja princess who has graced my door so early in the morning. Yes, that is sarcasm but I can't actually be disrespectful to her. She is of noble blood and I am of peasant blood so my bow is suitably deep. "Yamanaka-hime, what can this one do for you?"

" _Kensuke-kun!"_ she chides. "We're classmates you don't have to bow like that."

[Relationship with Yamanaka Ino improved. 10XP] So even though her words ask me not to bow, she actually liked it?

I straighten up. "Please, come inside. It's not much but it's home, Yamanaka-hime."

She walks past me and calls over her shoulder, "You can call me by my name, we're going to be friends, so it will be strange if you keep calling me that."

Friends, huh? Alright, she wants something. "Let me clear the table, Ino-hime."

Her pleased smile tells me she likes being addressed like that. I busy myself with making space as I check her stats once again. The girl's intelligence is nearing a hundred, her wisdom is past 50 and she has a high chakra capacity. My observe skill tells me one other very interesting thing about her, she is a 'sensor.'

I pull a chair at the table and invite her to sit. She accepts gracefully as I push the chair close to the table. I serve us both tea and watch her as she takes out toasted buns with butter, marmalade, and honey from her basket. She has impractically long blonde hair that goes to her waist, and her bangs cover one side of her face. The fact that she is the top kunoichi of the class despite leaving such a big opening for others speaks to her skill. I don't look forward to fighting her.

"So, Kensuke-kun, you're from the class before ours, right?" She spreads butter and marmalade on a toasted bun and passes it to me.

It's not strictly polite to ask that question but an heiress of her level can ignore such rules. "Yes, Ino-hime. I wasn't a very good student but I've been working hard to make up for it."

"Ah, is that why you asked Sakura to tutor you?" She winks. "Or maybe it's some other reason."

I waved my hand. "Ma, Sakura-chan started helping me before I could even ask for it."

"Hmm but you don't seem to mind, do you, Kensuke-kun?" She sips her tea and makes a pleased sigh. I brew awesome tea.

"She is sweet. I heard you two used to be friends, Ino-hime."

A hint of a frown appears on her face before it disappears and her smile is back. "A long time ago. And that's why I want to help you in your quest for her heart, Kensuke-kun."

"Bwah! What?" I cough as my tea goes down the wrong tube.

"Aww, you're cute when you're flustered, _Kensuke-kun_ ," she makes my name sound naughty.

I shudder because a twelve year-old is sitting across from me trying to be flirty and is suggesting I'm into her ex-best friend who is also twelve. "Ino-hime, I'm into older women. Sakura-chan is maybe a friend, although I don't know if I should be friends with her, seeing as she broke her friendship with you over a boy."

Her expression changes to one of pain. I don't need my observe ability to know she is still hurt by Sakura leaving her. "I'm sorry, Ino-hime, I didn't mean to remind you of how she hurt you."

"Ha! Who would be hurt by Forehead breaking her friendship with them?!" Ino slams the teacup on the saucer.

We sit in awkward silence and drink our tea and eat our breakfast after that outburst. "Well, Ino-hime, maybe we should head to class?"

She nods and I take the dishes to wash them in the sink. She gets up and smoothly starts wiping down the dishes. Frankly I didn't expect a ninja princess like her to be comfortable in a kitchen. She wears nail polish and lip gloss and has the look of an heiress.

"I don't understand, you said you were falling for her and Sakura was blushing. She likes you. Did you say those things to just play with her heart?" Ino-hime demands. I hear the edge of anger in her question. Even though their friendship is over, she is still watching out for her?

I smile. "No, I wasn't leading her on, I was just diffusing her anger at me for insulting her crush."

"Don't do that," she whispers, "A maiden's heart is a precious thing, Kensuke-kun. Even if it is that idiot." She finished wiping the last cup and placed it in the cupboard.

I gaze at her for a moment, my respect growing for her a bit more. "As you command, Ino-hime."

She huffs. "It's not a command, I can't order you."

"The way you order around your friends doesn't make it seem that way." I grin.

"Wait, are you accusing me of being bossy?" She puts her hands on her hips and glares at me.

It's cute and I start laughing. "Ino-hime, I think you might be cuter than Sakura-chan when you're angry."

"I'm always cuter than Forehead and are you flirting with me? I thought you were into older women."

I open the apartment door for her and follow her as she leaves with her hands crossed and glaring at me. "Now Ino-hime, you're going to grow up and be an older woman some day, aren't you?"

"I told you to stop playing with a maiden's heart," she snaps.

"As you command, Ino-hime." I smirk.

Her lips twitch and she starts laughing. "Just for that I'm so setting you up with Sakura-chan. Then Sasuke-kun will be all mine."

"Please don't."

"It is your princess's order, Kensuke-kun."

I grumble but acknowledge I've been outmaneuvered for the moment.

(Break)

As we enter the classroom Ino-hime latches onto my arm and calls out in a sugary voice, "Thank you for breakfast, Kensuke-kun." She then flounces down to her usual seat after having shot a smile at Sakura-chan who has seen us enter together. That conniving bitch! She's trying to make Sakura jealous of her for having breakfast with me.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan," I say as I take a seat next to her.

"Good morning. How was breakfast?" Her tone is frosty.

"Exhausting." I slump in my chair, faking how tired I am. "That girl is so controlling. She showed up out of nowhere and interrupted my morning training. You know how hard I'm trying to improve, don't you, Sakura-chan? I'm really upset she ate up all my time."

[Deception skill has improved. Emotional manipulation of children skill has improved] _Thanks…I didn't really need to know that about myself._

Sakura's eyes light up. "Hmph! It's your fault for getting involved with her."

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan, will you please still help catch me up in class?"

She hums and seems to be thinking deeply about it. Damn it, girl, I need the learning bonus I get with you studying with me.

"REJOICE! YOUR FUTURE HOKAGE HAS ARRIVED!" Uzumaki cartwheels into the room. "No need to stand, please stay seated."

"No one was going to stand for you, idiot!" Sakura shouts.

"Sakura-chan!" Uzumaki beams like a thousand watt bulb. "You're in this class? See, our love is fated!"

"Oh my god." Sakura plants her face in her hands. "Why, why is he in this class?"

Uzumaki bounds over to us, standing on the desk in front of us. He glares down at me. "Oi, lazy asshole, what're you doing here?"

"Going to class," I deadpan.

"Go to class somewhere else."

"No."

"Stop annoying Sakura-chan, lazy asshole."

"Am I annoying you Sakura-chan?" I ask.

"Of course not, Kensuke-kun," she says sweetly. "Naruto, get lost, you're disturbing us."

"But Sakura-chan," he whines. "Why is he sitting next to you?"

"Because I'm tutoring him, moron."

"You are?" I ask. "You're not mad?"

Sakura sighs, ignoring Uzumaki's protests in the background. "Yes, I will still tutor you, Kensuke-kun. It can't be helped. I shouldn't blame you for Ino-pig."

[You have managed to salvage your relationship with Haruno Sakura and retained your tutor. 50XP] _Cheers!_

"Ne, Sakura-chan, can you tutor me too?" Naruto begs with a blush.

Sakura glares at him. "You're imagining something perverted, aren't you?"

"I'm not, I promise, Sakura-chan! Come on, what's so great about this lazy asshole?"

Sakura stood and threw an upper-cut, catching Uzumaki right under the chin and sending him flying to the front of the room. "Stop calling Kensuke-kun names!"

Holy crap! What is this girl's strength score? Uzumaki's head cracked the blackboard when he smashed into it. Note to self: Do no piss off Sakura. She is stomping down the aisle to continue the beat down.

A voice whispers in my ear, "Good work, Kensuke-kun. I couldn't have planned that any better." I turn to see it's Ino-hime and roll my eyes at her grin. I suppose this whole scene has played completely in her favor.

Well nothing for it but to sit back and watch Sakura beat up Uzumaki in my defense and hers. Heh, this is actually a lot of fun.

oOo

During the school day I approached both Mizuki and Iruka-sensei for a fire ninjutsu but they told me I won't be seeing any elemental ninjutsu until I make genin. That's bullshit, I'm sure some of the clan kids have access to elemental ninjutsu. But whining about that is like whining about the entire system that elevates the clans – in other words, it's pointless.

After the school lets out I run through my usual routine. I have five hours till sunset and I intend to put it into the exercises I've learned from the weight suit conditioning scroll and the intermediate floating leaf taijutsu scroll. After that I'm getting the Hell away from the Academy. I cannot spend another evening in zombie dimension, not with the Aburame in it.

That said the levels I gain from clearing the dungeons is very attractive. At the end of the week Mizuki will hold the ranking fights. It is usual to have them at the end of every week to motivate students and keep up the pressure to improve. I'm far stronger than I was just a few days ago but if I need to be even stronger I need more fighting experience. The zombie dimensions give me just that, along with nightmares.

No. I cannot do another night. I can't go through being eaten alive again. I will just have to exercise and grind my skills outside of the dimension. A half hour before sunset I leave the Academy and wave to Iruka-sensei who is also leaving. The man compliments my hard work. I'm glad he's seeing me workout. I won't have to explain where I'm getting my sudden skill and strength increase now.

As my new routine demands I go to the ramen stand to eat and ogle Ayame. Except Uzumaki is there and loudly complaining about his day. I'm featuring in his whining. _Eugh, come on, man. This is the one thing I look forward to all day. You're going to ruin this for me!_

I'm tempted to be stubborn and walk over there but honestly he's going to be such a pain it will ruin any enjoyment I would get at Ayame's company.

I get food from a tempura stand to go and kick back at my apartment with one of my favorite anime shows. Ah, normality, how I have missed thee. Eating crispy greasy food and TV, this is the life.

Suddenly there is a change in the air, it's as if it has come to a complete standstill. Everything in my apartment turns gray, and the TV is showing only black and white bars.

[The sun has set and you have entered an illusory dimension between life and death. This building in the civilian residential sector of the village was destroyed during the Third Great War. The rage and regret of those who died in the attacks has coalesced into zombies you must kill.]

Oh, Hell no! This is my night off. I left the Academy early so I wouldn't get trapped in this shit. I raise my hand, palm facing the sky, gather the energy inside me and pull. "Illusory Dimension Escape!" I shout.

Nothing happens.

[You cannot escape the illusory dimension until victory conditions have been met or you die.]

Fear grips my heart. This game is trying to kill me! Why else would it do this? "Hey! Who is running this game? You son of a bitch! I don't want to do this!"

I hear moans and groans of the undead, someone is banging at my door, someone is throwing their body against the door to break in, I can smell them, their rot and their hate. My body is shaking, this cannot be happening. I'm supposed to be safe. I came home.

I equip the armor, the razor wire bracelets, and the ninjato. The door of my apartment opens to a short narrow corridor. I can't help but remember the weapon shopkeeper's words about the spear not being appropriate for some environments. Well, she didn't know about my chakra spear and how it can eat right through the walls. That said, I don't have enough chakra to use that for very long, so her advice and the sword she sold me will come in use tonight.

Fear gives way to anger. I don't think I've ever been this furious in my life. This is my home! They are attacking me in my home! I feel violated and I will make them pay for it.

I stand three feet away from my door and as it breaks I bring the sword down on the first zombie. He's a civilian, level 3, and goes down with one hit. My battle awareness tells me that most of the zombies close to me are weak. It doesn't make me ease up any. I've been lulled into a false sense of security before.

Stalking forward I shield with the razor wires, binding the arms and legs of zombies, and beheading them with the sword. In the narrow space the sword works best and I fall into a rhythm fueled by my rage clearing the thirteen-story building floor by floor.

[You have created a new skill 'Killing Intent.']

[You have leveled up 'Killing Intent.']

oOo

It's 3:00am. It's taken me eight hours to empty the building of zombies. No zombie was greater than level 14 but the sheer number of them was staggering. Over three hundred festering, teeth-gnashing, monsters crawled and bled all over the building. I cannot get my hands to stop shaking as I sit on my bedroll. The damage to the building and my apartment disappeared when the illusory dimension broke. But I can still smell them, still hear them moaning for my blood.

I won't ever feel safe in my home again. At least I didn't get bitten or eaten.

I don't even try to sleep. I just start breathing in the slow measured beat that will transport my soul into that state where the world is a beautiful network of life. Because I maintain a half-awareness of my surroundings in this state no one will be able to get the drop on me.

Not a zombie, not the fucking game.

oOo

Morning comes too soon. While the meditation has restored me to a great degree my mind is still tired, emotionally I'm drained.

[Qi Gong has leveled up] [Battle awareness has leveled up] [Killing Intent has leveled up] [All stats except luck have leveled up] [You gained three levels the night before]

Kensuke

Academy Student

Age: 13

 **LVL 22**

STR 30

DEX 30

VIT 33

INT 62

WIS 64

LUK 28

PTS 55

Guess fighting low level civilian zombies doesn't give that many level ups even though there were so many of them. I gained a level for every one hundred I killed. Just the thought that I've killed that many of anything, even if it's monsters, is enough to make me think nothing around me is real. Who am I becoming? What is this game making me?

I remind myself that the prize at the end of all this is the return of my memories. All this is worth that – I think.

I hope.

Unfortunately while the building was restored, my clothes were not. I throw in yet another blood stained shirt in the wash. All I have is a clean pair of shorts and ninja bandages. Guess I'm just going to have to wrap the top of my body in the black ninja tape.

After a shower and contorting myself, which gave me a plus one in my DEX score, I managed to wrap the bandages in some semblance of a muscle shirt. Luckily for me, I actually have muscle now. The weight suit, exercise, and illusory dimensions were working my body over.

Being too stressed to eat breakfast I left the apartment very early and resolved to just meditate on my way to the Academy. The serenity that comes with practicing the Whirlpool Temple scrolls is the only reason why I haven't blown up. The beauty of Konoha in the morning seems a little dimmed today. I stop by the park a short distance from the Academy and lean against a tree. It is a tree they say was raised by the first Hokage himself.

With my far improved chakra sense I can feel the dense and unique chakra under the bark. I connect with it, letting myself feel what the tree feels. The wind through its branches and the sunlight on its leaves is refreshing, and its roots are cool as they pull moisture. My body relaxes and I slump against the tree falling deeper into the tree's chakra.

My worries disappear; my mental exhaustion is replaced with a subtle joy of being alive and greeting another morning. I lose track of time as I become the chakra in the tree, slowly moving through its body.

…

…

…

Something is trickling down my face. A nasty smell jerks me out of my deep meditation. I come out of the state with immense difficulty, my heart isn't in it, but the smell and the liquid on my actual body is hard to ignore.

I open my eyes and gasp at the disgusting smell. It's blood and rotten eggs. I shoot to my feet. "What's this?"

Someone is laughing loudly near me but I ignore that to check myself over. I'm covered in pig's blood and rotten eggs mixed with orange paint, my observe ability tells me.

"That's what you get for sitting with Sakura-chan, lazy asshole! Hahahaha!" Uzumaki's voice finally breaks me out of my surprise.

I raise my head and see him standing with a bucket of the crap he has covered me in. There are several of our classmates in eyesight who have seen what he did. A switch gets flipped inside me.

"These are the last clothes I have," I say.

"What?" Uzumaki demands.

"These," I step forward, leaking killing intent, "are the last," I start running, "fucking clothes I have!"

He's backpedaling but not fast enough. I enhance my fist with chakra and hit him with a cross. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU SHITSTAIN!"

[Killing Intent has leveled up to 20]

My knee is in his gut and he's sent into the air. I whip my wrist up, launching the razor wires to grab him in the air and then slam him back into the earth. "You spoiled cunt! I've had enough of you!"

Uzumaki gets off the ground looking only a little rattled. Damn him and his enormous vitality. I use a replacement technique to get right behind him and with all the force I can muster I kick him in the balls.

Is it against the man code to do that? Yes.

Did I give a damn? Hell no!

Uzumaki's scream turns into sobs. Somehow the little twerp gets off the ground again. He pulls a kunai and launches himself at me. I'm only too happy to escalate and pull my kunai as well.

Mizuki appears between us and I mean that one moment there was empty space and I was glaring at Uzumaki's tear filled enraged eyes and then next Mizuki is standing there. He grabs both of our hands and twists. Both of us are forced to drop the kunai in our hands.

"Enough. Walk it off, Naruto. You pranked him, you should expect that he would retaliate," Mizuki said.

"But Mizuki-sensei," he began to whine in a choked voice but Mizuki just pointed in a direction away from me.

"And you," he turned to me with a furious look. "Come, I'm taking you to the showers."

As he manhandled me into the Academy, I saw all my classmates looking at me, including a worried Sakura and Ino. My eyes met theirs for a second. Ino grabbed Sakura's hand and turned to run in a direction away from the Academy.

Mizuki led me with his hand biting into my shoulder behind the gym and told me to stand against the wall. There was a hose that he grabbed. Oh, great, I see what's coming. A wide torrent of pressurized water left the hose that Mizuki ran over me. It actually hurt a little but I didn't argue, because feeling clean was far more important. If I hadn't been so deep in my meditation my battle sense would have warned me of Uzumaki's prank. Lesson learned, never leave yourself open like that.

"Take off your clothes, that crap is not going to come out."

"Sensei, I don't have anything else to wear."

"Don't worry, if I'm not wrong, someone will be bringing you a change of clothes soon."

I unwrapped the bandages and took off the shorts and sandals and stood there in my underwear and weight suit.

"Ah, so that's how you've been getting stronger. Been wearing that while working out." Mizuki nodded in approval. "Now, tell me what possessed you to attack Naruto in front of the Academy, that just happens to be next to the Hokage tower, with all his ANBU flitting about, eh?" Sarcasm dripped from his voice.

"Fuck," I cursed.

"You could have been executed for directing that kind of killing intent at Naruto."

I hung my head. The anger at Uzumaki fizzled in the face of the very real possibility I would've been killed or taken to some holding cell. _I knew_ the Sandaime treats Uzumaki like a grandson and yet I lost myself to anger and went after him with intent to kill.

"They are going to be watching you very closely now, Kensuke. What happened today will have gotten to the Hokage by now. I will be expected to report if you're a threat to Naruto or not." Mizuki opened up the hose again to blast me with water after I finished taking off the weight suit.

"What am I supposed to do? Just let him keep harassing me?" I demand.

"Yes," Mizuki said. When I stared at him angrily he continued, "Kensuke, people like you and me aren't important. You _might_ stop coming to the Academy and no one will notice. Do you understand?"

I nodded. I understood, alright.

"I'm not going to ask you where you developed that kind of killing intent. God knows that Uzumaki can trigger that kind of a reaction in anyone. But now everyone who was there knows that you went after him with real desire to murder him – you dumbass!" He suddenly punched me, throwing me to the ground. "You're smarter than this. Just when I see you improving and making something of yourself I can be proud of you go and pull such a stupid stunt!"

My face is smarting but paradoxically I'm actually happy that he is concerned for my welfare. "I'm sorry, sensei."

He took a deep breath and walked with me into a patch of sunlight so I could dry off. "Listen, Kensuke, I think you might have real talent. Just be patient and make it to genin. I will be watching out for you. There are other _places_ and _people_ who will value your hard work." He gave me a significant look.

I had no idea what he meant but I latched onto the idea that he will be watching out for me. "I understand, Mizuki-sensei."

"Good. Now I'm going to disappear, I think your clothes have arrived. But before I leave, let me tell you this, in the fights on Friday I will pit you against Naruto."

"Ok."

"You're going to let him take revenge on you. Throw the fight if you have to," he said, as he walked away.

I clenched my teeth to stop the protest that was on the tip of my tongue. He was right. I had to show that I'm Naruto's inferior, so that in the eyes of those watching out for him, I'm no threat to him. Then my fight earlier would be seen as a fluke.

[You have made a wise decision that will safeguard your future. Your WIS has risen by 1]

"Kensuke-kun?"

I turned around and found Sakura and Ino with bags in their hands. All three of us blushed. "Ino-hime, Sakura-chan," I greeted, pretending I wasn't standing in my underwear.

"Nice abs, Kensuke-kun," Ino-hime said with a smirk but not looking anywhere near my body.

"Ino!" Sakura-chan screamed in a scandalized tone. "Kensuke-kun, we brought you some clothes. We'll leave them on the ground here."

"Don't be shy, go ahead, pretend we're not here," Ino-hime said.

"Aa…thank you, both of you." I didn't bother to bow as I went to grab the bags and found a tree to hide behind.

I heard giggling from the girls and shook my head.

[Relationship has improved with Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura. You have gained the two as admirers. 50XP] _I really, really don't need to know that._

[Konoha's leadership's opinion of you has worsened. Iruka-sensei's opinion of you has worsened. Reward: Greater scrutiny of your activities.]

I suppose that alert means that the Hokage has just found out about me beating up his precious pseudo grandson.

I must have really pissed off some deity for this sort of bad luck. Maybe it wasn't wisest decision, but I opened up my stats and dumped all my saved up points into luck because I'm sure I'm going to need it.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

When I say I dumped all my points into luck I mean that I stood there in my underwear pressing the plus button fifty-five times. It's very tedious.

[You have reached the 50 LUK threshold. More often than not your good luck becomes your enemy's misfortune: A Hyuuga will be brought low by an eyelash in her eye, an Aburame will choke on a fly, an Uchiha will fumble a kunai, zombies will suffer indigestion in a fight with you.]

That's awesome. I take out the clothes from the bag. There's a pair of black shorts with red piping and a dark purple mesh shirt. I'm guessing the girls fought over which colors to buy for me and picked their favorite colors. Black sandals completed what they purchased for me. Luckily my metal reinforced gloves survived the 'prank.'

I go back to adding points to my luck stat and get another alert at 69:

[You have reached 69 Luck, you lucky dog, you! Women tend toward making awful romantic decisions around you to your advantage. Congratulations, you're every kunoichi's favorite mistake…or at least most common mistake.]

I stare at the alert and my mouth is hanging open. " _I am not a mistake!"_ I shout at the alert screen.

"Kensuke-kun! Is everything alright?" Sakura-chan calls out and my blood freezes.

I said that out loud! Stupid trolling game and its stupid alerts. Please, for the sake of all that is holy and good, let twelve year old kunoichi-in-training be exempt from this new luck award. I finish adding points to my LUK stat.

[Alert: The Hokage has assigned two chunnin to shadow you. _Luckily_ the chunnin harbors hate for Uzumaki Naruto and has no intention of ratting you out.]

"Score!" I shout.

"Ken-kun?" It's Ino-hime this time.

"Uhh, I'll be right out. I just really like the clothes."

Ino-hime leaves for her group of friends after making sure I'm fine. Sakura-chan clearly doesn't like her hovering around me. I suppose Ino-hime's plan to make Sakura-chan jealous is working. Personally, I think Sakura-chan is just getting territorial. She is still crazy for Uchiha Sasuke. Thank goodness.

The rest of the day I stay out of Uzumaki's way and hang out with Sakura-chan. It isn't until the end of the school day that I face my first challenge. Where should I train? If I train at the Academy like I usually do, I'm leaving myself open to a confrontation with Uzumaki. On the other hand, the staff will be present and the Hokage tower isn't far off. Training there shows clearly that I'm not trying to hide.

After a little hemming and hawing I decide to stay at the Academy. First I wash my weight suit in the water tank on the ground and leave it on the grass to dry. Then I use my time practicing ninjutsu by making illusory clones, replacing myself as fast and as many times as I can, transforming myself and then cloning my transformed version. So on and so forth, until I run out of chakra, at which point I do Whirlpool Qi Gong to recover.

I train as usual from 2:00pm to right before sunset at 7:00pm. All the time I felt an itch at the base of my neck, as if someone were watching me. I tried to use my battle sense a few times to pick up on the location of whoever was spying on me without success.

I wished I could have stayed and talked to Ayame at the ramen stand but I got take out and went home. The feeling of being watched remained as I ate dinner. It was getting awfully close to sunset and I began to panic. What does it look like from the outside when an illusory dimension appears? Do I just disappear? What is the spy going to think if I disappear on their watch?

[Your sensor ability has leveled up. You can detect the chakra of enemies in a quarter-mile radius if they are focused upon you]

The itch becomes a solid feeling in my mind. I can tell exactly how far the spy is from me. As I sweat I keep the sensor sense on them. The seconds passing toward 7:00pm are moving faster and faster. I have a comic book open in my hands but I haven't turned a page yet.

The spy suddenly races away and leaves my range of detection. Is he gone?

[Your high luck has ensured the spy set on you is going to make a bad romantic decision. She has decided to look up an old flame rather than sit around watching an Academy brat]

I sigh explosively and look at the clock. Five seconds to sunset. Well, I did clear out the building yesterday so it should mean I'm safe now.

[The sun has set and you have entered an illusory dimension between life and death. This building in the shinobi residential sector of the village was destroyed during the Second Great War. The rage and regret of those who died in the attacks has coalesced into zombies you must kill.]

You have got to be kidding me! It was _civilian_ zombies from the _third_ war the night before, now it's _ninja_ zombies from the _second_ war? At least they aren't zombies from the Kyuubi attack – those ones are a special kind of fucked up.

Quickly I don my weight suit and armor after removing the clothes the girls bought me. Yes, that means tonight I'm going to fight in my underwear. After the stress of being watched all day, the chance to cut loose and kill zombies is welcome.

But the smell still makes my heart race and when I see the rotting grey flesh of the monsters my hands start to sweat. I take out two kunai – it has been a while since I've practiced my knife wielding.

The outline of my door turns red and yellow before it explodes inward. I go flying back from the force of the explosion. My health drops halfway, my ears are ringing, and I'm dizzy. I pull myself to my hands and knees while coughing. Three ninja-zombies were in my apartment. They wore wide straw hats that covered half their faces

[Ninja visiting from the Village Hidden in the Grass were visiting Konoha and were housed in this building. Their rage at dying in a conflict that had nothing to do with them has given these zombies twice the rage of Konoha zombies.]

I checked their levels. Holy crap, the weakest amongst them is twice my level. I can't face them head on. One of them blurred forward, I had a moment to reinforce my body with Qi Gong before I was kicked in the face and flying out of my window. I righted myself in the air and whipped razor wires at the crenulations at the roof of the building. For a long two seconds I thought I was dead but the wires caught a crenulation and I jerked to a halt in the air before swinging toward the building and hitting the wall hard. It was as if some giant had grabbed me in his hand and squeezed. I hissed in pain and breathed in relief.

I stayed hanging from the wires and hugging the outside wall of the apartment building, somewhere near three floors above the ground. I was shaking from adrenaline and fear. I had almost gone splat! And inside my building were at least three Grass shinobi who outclassed me so much that I had no hope of winning against them.

My experience from the nights before had taught me one thing: I'm a coward, I don't like pain, and I'm afraid of dying. If I give myself too much time to think I will make mistakes, I will cower, I will whine, moan, and curse about being put in a deadly game I want no part of. In short, all those emotions and thoughts that would get me killed. So I start climbing up the side of the building for want of anything better to do, but mostly so I had something to focus on.

Clearly, facing these zombies like I have in the past in face-to-face combat is a losing strategy. I have only one recourse: Stealth. Hilariously I think of Hikari-san from the weapons shop who told me of stories of her assassinating enemies with a sickle. Her pride in her skill at catching her enemies unaware gave me hope that something like that could be done.

I find an open window on the twelfth floor and enter the empty apartment it led to. My breath steadied as I focus on my battle sense and identify enemies all around me. My sense gives me a vague sense that I am surrounded by ninja far more powerful than me. That's all the confirmation I need that tonight is going to be very different than other nights if I'm to survive it.

I find an air duct and shimmy into it and use my battle sense to take me to a lone zombie on the twelfth floor. Sweating from fear and hardly breathing I crawl through the ducts until I'm right over a zombie. I find a grill in the duct eight feet away from the zombie and wait for him there.

When he comes into view I almost curse out loud. He's a LVL 50. I don't pay any more attention to his stats. I breathe in the life force of the world to take myself into a mind state free from terror. At the pace of a snail I lower two strands of razor-wire, thinner than spider web, and wait for him to pass.

He comes to stand right under the slats in the duct, as if he has sensed me. Who the Hell knows what a LVL 50 ninja is capable of? I guide the razor wires down over his head, behind his ears and around his through, leaving a hair's breath between the wire and his skin. When the wires have looped around twice I send a burst of chakra through them.

The ninja jerks to the right, some sense telling me he's under attack, but to no avail. As his body lunges right, his head remains under me, sheered cleanly off his body. I slump in the duct and absently use the wires to pull up the loot he leaves behind.

[Alert: Assassination skill has been created] [Assassination skill has leveled up][Stealth skill has been created][Stealth skill has leveled up][Chakra control has leveled up]

Using ninja wires takes meticulous chakra control, so I'm not surprised that has leveled up. I get other alerts about how much XP I have gained but I ignore it and start crawling backwards in the duct towards my next target on the twelfth floor.

My next target is not in sight even though my battle sense is screaming at me that I'm on top of them. So I lie in wait but the target doesn't come into view. I wait for twenty minutes and decide that enough is enough. Using my razor wires I cut a hole in the duct and slip out of it.

I drop in a crouch with the ninjato drawn as soon my feet touch the floor. Facing the direction of the target I find her on the ceiling. She was standing upside down on the ceiling and had been there all the time I was in the air-duct waiting for her to walk by. She's LVL 30, heh, _only_ LVL 30? Come on, girl, you're only eight levels above me.

The coat she's wearing looks like it's made from dried grass. She makes a hand seal and the grass on her coat points toward me, she shouts and the grass blades fly at me. I presume that they will hurt as bad as metal blades and kawarimi out of the way. She guesses where I will appear and plants a kunai in my shoulder. I scream and slash with my ninjato. She dodges smoothly to the left but suddenly stumbles and I see her foot roll. I take advantage of the klutz and lunge forward to bisect her head.

She disappears in dust and leaves behind a scroll called "Chakra Walking." I have the required INT and DEX to learn it, so I do so right away. In a moment I know how she was walking upside down on the ceiling, how to walk on the very tips of elephant grass that grows in her country, and walk on water as well. Like any Academy student will tell you, being able to walk on walls is one of the skills that they want to learn the most. I grin happily, even though so many powerful enemies surround me.

Soon I'm back in the ducts to recover from the kunai wound in my shoulder. It takes ten minutes with Qi Gong accelerating my usual rate of recovery. Then I'm off to my next set of targets with a lot greater confidence than before.

It takes five hours to clear out the building. Every other kill was an assassination. There was no one I could conceivably step in the ring with. But my luck caused every third zombie I encountered to do something stupid that I capitalized on, and my assassination skill kept leveling up.

When I escaped the illusory dimension it was with a sobering thought that the enemies I had fought were all genin from Konoha and Grass. The assassination and skill that I'm so proud of now may mean nothing when faced with chunnin and jounin.

Fighting enemies at least eight or over double your level does mean a lot of experience. Before I went to sleep I checked my stats to find I had leveled up ten times, with my stats and skills growing as well.

Kensuke

Academy Student

Age: 13

 **LVL 32**

STR 35

DEX 38

VIT 39

INT 73

WIS 75

LUK 86

PTS 50

Luck had played a critical roll in my success in the latest illusory dimension. Zombies happening to be distracted by something, tripping when normal ninjas would never trip, my happening to unknowingly approach them from blind corners, all served to save my skin. I was tempted to bring my luck up to hundred but I also had noticed that my physical stats had almost gotten me killed.

Exercise with the weight suit, intermediate taijutsu practice, and Qi Gong were all making me stronger, faster, and healthier. Frankly, I'm improving at a very fast rate by any normal standard. But I don't have time.

Every night I'm forced into an illusory dimension. If the pattern holds, tomorrow night I will be facing ninja zombies from the first war in my apartment building. I need to have my physical stats to be through the roof yesterday! It is wiser to hoard the points and improve the physical stats via exercise and Qi Gong but if I'm dead that long-term strategy will be useless.

The truth is that I have to live my life according to immediate needs. So I take my fifty points and divide them three ways to bring up strength, dexterity, and vitality. My muscles warm and I involuntary stretch as my body changes. I feel stronger and as I walk to the kitchen to make a snack I realize I'm a little taller too. All my physical stats crossed the fifty threshold but I didn't get any special skill alerts.

That night I let myself sleep, hoping to recover from the mental stress of the last few days.

oOo

The next few days were spent being careful as I was constantly watched. I leveled up my battle sense by keeping track of the spies. Because of my luck stat the only people on my tail were ones who were predisposed to taking my side against Uzumaki, or women who somehow always decided they had an itch to scratch right before sunset and left me alone. I wasn't complaining.

Sakura-chan kept tutoring me and with my high intelligence and wisdom I was catching up fast. She typically left me after our early morning sessions to stalk the Uchiha but I didn't mind. She is, after all, twelve, and really not that interesting though kind.

Friday came and passed by without the fight I was supposed to have with Uzumaki. Uzumaki had missed the day because of food poisoning my game alert system informed me. It was another doing of my 'LUK' stat. I had fought other students from a civilian background who were now a lot weaker than me. I beat them but not with a lot of skill. I didn't want anyone getting suspicious of my meteoric improvement.

I practiced my skills from dawn to dusk over the weekend and worked in illusory dimensions at the Academy after sunset. Had dinner at the ramen stand and chatted with Ayame. My surveillance was always absent when I needed it to be and made up of only people anti-Uzumaki, so I was feeling pretty good.

When Monday rolled around and I didn't get a 'Good Morning' message from the game system I presumed the system had developed some common decency. And when the sun set on Thursday and I wasn't forced into an illusory dimension, I presumed my luck stat was in full force protecting me.

I was content that the game wasn't going to force me to wake up or fight in illusory dimensions any longer. Perhaps levels I had earned after nearly two weeks of daily illusory dimension fights for survival had satisfied whatever deity was running the game.

I was an utter fool for missing the signs of what was truly happening.

On Friday morning I received an alert that had me in a cold sweat all day:

[The energy required for extreme stochastic manipulation caused by your high luck and general quantum foam manipulation has depleted the unique energy stores required for the game system.

If a power source for the game system is not found within ten days the entire system will disappear. All outstanding quests and promised rewards will be unfulfilled. Gains made using the game system will gradually disappear.]

[Quest: Find the unique chakra source the Game System needs to operate within ten days]


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **10** days to complete Game System failure:

I ran around Konoha, constantly calling out Observe under my breath. I walked by hidden power plants, secret training facilities, residential areas, clan compounds - I found nothing. No 'unique' power source.

My shadows, the Hokage's spies, stayed with me the whole day. I could feel them at the edge of my battle sense.

 **9** days to complete Game System failure:

As the school day went on I felt the weight suit dragging me down more than usual. I opened up my inventory to reduce the weight.

The inventory did not appear.

It was gone along with the legendary techniques I had hidden in it and the money I had earned from killing zombies.

That evening I once again ran around Konoha using the Observe skill on everything and anything. Konoha is more of a large city than a village. I could only cover so many areas in a night. I meditated and used the Whirlpool techniques to replenish my energy as much as possible so I could keep running.

But the spies were there and I didn't dare act too suspiciously. I couldn't sleep that night.

 **8** days to complete Game System failure:

My roommates arrived in the morning. I blinked at them stupidly for a long moment, trying to remember when I had last thought about them. I hadn't seen them in weeks. They hadn't been home in weeks. Yet, while playing the game, I had completely forgotten about them.

Apparently they had left to patrol some city. Did the game arrange for them to be away so I could 'play' in peace?

 **7** days to complete Game System failure:

I sat in class with cold sweat running down my back. I felt weak, my strength was leaving me. The 'Observe' skill no longer worked. I didn't know how to find an energy source if I couldn't see it.

 **6** days to complete Game System failure:

I skipped school that day and just sat at home, brooding and afraid because I had realized something. The Game was fucking with my head. I didn't realize it when the system was working on full charge because it had manipulated my mind and just couldn't see it.

How had I known how to play this game?

Why did I suddenly accept it and just roll with it?

I'm naturally suspicious and unmotivated. I should've been trying to figure out what the Hell was going on rather than happily building my stats up with such amazing self discipline. I worked, without fail, for five hours after the Academy every day, plus the weekends to improve myself. Setting aside that I'm extremely motivated not to be sold to a whorehouse and that I want my memories back, self-discipline does not happen overnight.

Besides, I had gained whatever stats I needed to graduate middle of the pack comfortably, yet I kept on pushing myself.

The last clue that my mind had been messed with was that I hadn't remembered my roommates beyond the first day or so of the game.

It's terrifying that something could so easily rearrange my attitude and my memories.

 **5** days to complete Game System failure:

I skipped the academy again and meandered around a different section of Konoha. I wasn't really looking for the power source anymore. I didn't know if I wanted the game back. My muscles have reduced in size, I can't run or jog like I used to before, I lose breath too easily.

 **4** days to complete Game System failure:

All my skills are gone: No battle sense, no chakra affinity, can't use the razor wires on the bracelets for shit, can't throw a kunai to save my life.

Am I really going to let this happen? Become so weak again that all I'm worth to anyone is as a sex slave? Am I really going to let the chance of remembering my past life disappear?

So what if the game made me forget my roommates? It's not like we are friends. Fuckers don't even like me. What if the game gave me instant self-discipline? People would kill for something like that.

Yes, it messed with my mind, taught me how to use it without me ever realizing it, but it was all to my benefit.

I raised my head and screamed at the sky. I was in a tucked away playground in one of the many residential sectors of Konoha. I had half-heartedly been searching for a power source. Damn all this.

My only salvation is to let something screw my head to save me from a life of ignorance and slavery. Love the ninja village, will of fire, my ass.

 **3** days to complete Game System failure:

At least the notice I get every morning on how many days are left is still working. That's all that seems to be working at this stage.

Mizuki-sensei caught me at my apartment before I could leave on another hunt around the village. He was pissed at the days I had missed. Besides today, apparently, is ranking day. We're doing it a little early this week, I suppose. Uzumaki had missed some classes and I had missed others, so we hadn't really run into each other since the incident.

Mizuki-sensei wanted to make sure I showed up to class to get my ass beat by Uzumaki. You know, so as to assure the old bastard in the tower that I couldn't hurt his precious pseudo-grandson. Argh!

I don't have time for this.

I trudged into class right before the bell rang and met Sakura's eyes right away. She had been looking toward the door. I'm surprised. By this time she's usually fighting with the female horde to sit next to Sasuke. She ran up to me as soon as she saw me.

"Kensuke-kun, where have you been? You don't look good." Her green eyes were clearly worried.

I gave a slight smile. "Eh, been feeling sick, haven't been sleeping much."

"You should be resting at home then," she said and motioned me to follow her down to her seat.

"Mizuki-sensei dragged me out. He wants to make sure I participate in the sparring today."

"That's stupid. You're sick, you can't fight," she scolded.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked, looking to the aisle where Uchiha Sasuke sat. Each seat in the row was taken. The boy looked murderous. "Shouldn't you be over there?"

"Ino locked me in the bathroom, that cow!"

"I thought she was a pig." I smirked at her angry face.

"She is a pig and a cow, a cow-pig." Sakura pointed at Ino who was sitting right next to Sasuke with her arm wrapped around his.

"Oi, Forehead, are you saying something? The soundwaves can't make it past your massive forehead," Ino called back.

"That doesn't even make sense!" Sakura shouted.

Ino ignored her and waved to me. "Hi, Kensuke-kun, you look dead."

I waved back. "I feel dead."

The door slammed open and Uzumaki was dragged in by Mizuki.

[Unique Energy Source Found! Energy Transfer Seal has been implanted on your right hand. Make contact with source for five seconds to transplant the seal. The system will drain the source directly after application.]

I was dumbfounded and had my mouth open. Other than Uzumaki's HP bar, there were nine other bars hanging over his head that were greyed out. But those nine bars had the infinity symbol next to them. Uzumaki had two different types of health bars? Was this the Uzumaki longevity thing I had read about? I did not know.

I was relieved and worried at the same time. The unique source was right in front of me, I could get the game back, but did it mean killing Uzumaki? Hell, I had almost killed him a few weeks back, but that was in a moment of insane rage. Mizuki called the class to order and I sat down heavily next to Sakura.

Whatever was lectured or happened in class passed by as if in a dream. My mind was occupied with one thought only, was I about to kill Uzumaki?

oOo

Lectures on sparring day were short to give more time to the ranking tournament. By the time we walked out I had decided that since Uzumaki's HP bar did not have the infinity symbol next to it that meant I wouldn't be draining his primary health bar. Otherwise...well training accidents do happen.

No, I tried to steel my heart and convince myself that I could make peace with pretending that I had killed him in a training accident, but it didn't work. I knew I was resolving myself to commit murder and I couldn't paint it any other way.

My single hope was that I was right in my analysis that the grey infinity bars were what the game was going to take. I prayed to god I was right.

And I prayed that I would actually get my hands on him. I've lost 70% of the power I had gained, even though I can't see my stats, I'm sure I'm weaker than Uzumaki again. He will pulverize me. The wait for my turn was anxiety inducing but luckily I was alone in my misery. Sakura abandoned me to hover around Sasuke, that's the usual, and not unwelcome. Ino-hime hadn't come by to chat with me yet. I expected she would at some stage.

"Uzumaki Naruto and Kensuke," Mizuki-sensei called us into the ring. The other students sat outside the ring in a circle.

My legs were shaking and I felt nauseated as I walked to the center of the ring. So much rode on this fight, my future and possibly Uzumaki's life. Uzumaki was shouting and crowing as he usually does about his awesomeness and how badly he was going to beat me.

"Hey, Uzumaki." I put out my hand to shake. "Look, why don't we shake hands and bury the hatchet."

Uzumaki looked from my hand to me. "I don't have a hatchet."

Mizuki-sensei groaned. "He's trying to be friendly, you idiot."

"Hey!" Uzumaki protested. "Why is he talking about burying hatchets then? Besides, I'm going to kick his ass for stealing Sakura-chan!"

I pulled back my hand. There goes my plan to put the seal on him before the fight starts. Uzumaki is wearing an orange jumpsuit which is almost zipped up all the way to his chin. I will have to put my hand on exposed skin. Which means either his hands on his face. I would rather put the seal somewhere no one will immediately notice, but I may not be spoiled for choice.

"Hajime!" Mizuki-sensei announced the start of the match.

Uzumaki leapt at me with his fist cocked back. He wanted to put me down hard and fast. I jigged to the right but wasn't fast enough, his punch clipped me and all I saw was stars. But I had opened my arms as soon as he'd jumped at me and blindly grabbed on to him.

"Gett off me!" he shouted as he elbowed me.

He knocked the wind out of my but I wrapped my legs around his and tipped back. We fell down with him punching my sides. _Put him in a hold, just get him in a hold._ I was at the wrong angle to put him in a submission hold but I needed only five seconds of skin contact to pass the seal. As he punched me and headbutted me, my nose! I snaked my right hand beneath his collar and pressed my palm below the back of his neck.

After that I held on as he head butted me again. Blood was flowing freely from my nose. I bet it's mashed to a pulp now. Suddenly Uzumaki went limp in my grasp. I felt terror, did I kill him! I opened my eyes to see a message [Seal has transferred. Power source will be transmitted over nine days. Host of power source will be lethargic for the period.]

"Let go of," Uzumaki yawned, "of me, dattebayo." He snored.

There was a breath of silence and then he snored again. He had gone to sleep on me.

"Awww, isn't that shweet? Naruto and Kensuke, sitting on a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g," Kiba said and a wave of laughter met him.

I started laughing too, I had tears in my eyes. I was so relieved. I didn't kill the little shit and the game was going to be ok.

"Alright, enough," Mizuki-sensei snapped. "Kiba, take Kensuke to the nurse's office. Since Uzumaki was winning before he went to sleep, I'm calling this his win."

oOo

I wasn't going to have to live with a crooked nose. Yay. I was going to have to live with Kiba's jokes about me being gay for Uzumaki. So I told him I was going to seduce his sister to pay him back for his insult.

Well, I didn't really tell him, I said it in my head, because if I said it out loud I would get my nose broken again. I tried to call up my stats but they didn't appear, I just got a message that the game system was charging. I had sort of hoped that I would get a quest to seduce Kiba's sister but that didn't happen either.

When we returned to class I was in a great mood and didn't mind Ino-hime fussing over me. She was partially doing it to annoy Sakura, but I really didn't mind being used that way at that moment. All was right in the world.

The next nine days passed peacefully. The game greeted me in the morning but didn't give me any quests or throw me in any dimensions. Other than that I could only see Uzumaki's health bars. The ones with the infinity symbols were surely emptying. Everyday one disappeared. Uzumaki lorded over his win everyday but he did seem a little subdued, hell he went through an entire lecture without interrupting. He also seemed to find a friend in Nara Shikamaru - the two slept through most lectures. For the sake of my conscience, I was happy he didn't seem to be dying.

I didn't train much during the period the game was recharging. Mizuki-sensei and Iruka-sensei accepted my excuse that I was feeling ill. They even commented on how I looked like I had lost weight.

On the morning of the tenth day after my spar with Naruto, I received a message from the game: [The Game system is fully recharged. All features, quests, and rewards are reinstated.]

Hallelujah! Let's look at the stats, shall we?

 **Kensuke**

Academy Student

Age:13

 **LVL: 33**

STR 55

DEX 59

VIT 61

INT 77

WIS 79

LUK 91

PTS 0

Now, no one in class is really static, everyone's stats and levels improve as they train. But even saying that my stats are on the better end of the spectrum. Even if I stay at this level, I will be middle of the pack. Of course, the quest had demanded that I graduate in the Top 15 students of the class. Seeing as I have several clan heirs and other children from ninja background like Sakura to compete against, I have to keep improving. Roughly two months are left to graduation. The genin I had fought in my illusory dimensions were close to LVL 50 in some cases. It wouldn't surprise me to see Uchiha Sasuke to reach and cross that level before graduation.

Of course, I'm talking like I have a choice, which I do not. The Game is back and that means tonight I will be forced into an illusory dimension. I will fight, bleed, earn stats and levels. Or, I will die because the Game is ruthless.

oOo

 **Hyuuga Hinata**

Who should I tell? Should I even tell someone...what if they make fun of me? A part of Naruto-kun is missing! That boy did something to him when they fought, it must have been him. His other chakra is gone, it had been there in the morning, but after the fight it started disappearing.

And now it's gone.

I've never seen Naruto-kun tired before, what if Kensuke-san poisoned him!

I wrote my thoughts in my diary and then tore the page to burn it. That's what I always do. In a house where one has to only send chakra to their eyes to discover any secret, no secrets can be kept, there is no privacy. Not for the heiress of the clan at the least. Everyone watches me, everyone judges, if only I could not feel their glares like Naruto-kun can.

But I'm not him, so I burn the pages of my diary.

Naruto-kun is not himself anymore. He's always exhausted. I won't forgive Kensuke-san if he did something to him.

What if they blame me for not telling them sooner?

I have to do something. I can't say I l-l-love Naruto-kun if I don't stand up for him.

oOo

The Sandaime Hokage reviewed surveillance reports on Kensuke. At first there had been little to nothing of interest. Kensuke was a very hardworking academy student, spending hours upon hours on practice. But then something shifted and he became morose, even more caustic than he had been observed to be before. He lost interest in training.

All that changed after a spar between Naruto and him. A spar during which Naruto fell asleep - an unbelievable thing to happen to anyone but especially to the bundle of energy Naruto was. After that Kensuke was happy again, his work ethic returned, and he was excelling in class once more. And now a timid, white eyed girl stood in his office with her father, telling him that Kensuke had done something to Naruto's chakra.

"Hinata-chan," he said as he stood.

"H-H-Hokage-sama?" she stammered and seemed to collapse into herself so that the collar of her big jacket rode up to her nose.

He walked up to her and patted her head. "I'm very proud of you. Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

"We live to serve," Hiashi, her father, said imperiously from her side. Subtly reminding The Sandaime that he owed them some sort of a reward for uncovering a threat to Konoha's Jinchuriki.

The Sandaime recalled quite clearly how badly Hiashi had wanted to take Naruto into his family, to protect and train him. Of course, he was not the only clan head to make such an offer. Everyone wanted to curry favor with the jinchuuriki, no matter how wary they were of his potential threat. A clan that had the demon host in their debt would be elevated above all. Historically the jinchuuriki was associated with the Kage's family. The Sandaime knew Hiashi hoped that taking Naruto in would pave the way for a Hyuuga to be named the next Hokage.

The Sandaime gazed at Hinata, piercing her soul with his eyes, the girl was without any artifice. She had unwittingly provided her father a political ace. The Sandaime wanted to reward her for her loyalty to Naruto without playing into the hands of the Hyuuga clan elders. He didn't hand Naruto over to any clan thirteen years ago to be used as a political chess piece and he was not going to do that today either.

"Yes, you have done very well, Hinata-chan. Why don't you come by my office after school tomorrow. I would like to see how well you're doing in your studies." He smiled at the girl who bowed deeply.

Hiashi frowned and said slowly, "Hokage-sama…"

"Don't by shy, Hiashi-kun," The Sandaime brushed him off airily. "No need to be polite and refuse my offer to watch over Hinata during her Academy days on account of my busy schedule."

Hiashi knew he was out maneuvered. He had wanted to get access to Uzumaki, instead the Sandaime was 'rewarding' him by supposedly taking his useless daughter under his wing. He could not refuse such an offer, it was extremely generous, on the surface. Underneath, however, it meant that The Sandaime would have full access to manipulate the next head of the Hyuuga clan.

Hiashi had gone to the tower with his daughter with the expectation of winning the jinchuuriki, he had instead lost his daughter to The Sandaime. A deep, closed-off, part of him felt a spark of hope that where others had failed, perhaps the Hokage could fix his daughter.

These thoughts blazed through his mind as he bowed. "You do us an honor, Hokage-sama."

"I have a special place in my heart for the children of Konoha," the Hokage answered. A threat or a promise in his words.

As the Hyuuga left, The Sandaime called out two orders in the empty room. One, to bring Naruto to him so he could check on the seal and see if the Kyuubi was still trapped. Second, for Torture and Interrogation Division to bring in Kensuke.


	8. Chapter 8

**.8.**

In a room that resembled more a hollowed-out cement block than a place for habitation Kensuke was strapped down on a metal table. His eyes were unfocused and a little line of spittle was dripping from the corner of his mouth. A blonde young woman had two fingers resting on his brow and the fingers of her other hand held in a seal. She looked up from Kensuke to the other woman in the room, Mitarashi Anko.

Mitarashi Anko nodded to the blonde and then put her hands in a seal, while calling out, "Illusory Art: Heaven Viewing Technique, Titillating Tea Torture!"

Kensuke, of course, was not aware of any of this. He hadn't been aware that he had been knocked out and taken from his apartment. He wasn't aware that he was seven levels below the Torture and Interrogation building. His memory was a little fuzzy, but he felt comfortable in the tea house he found himself in. Low tables sat on raised platforms in a meticulously manicured garden. Each table was far enough from the others to ensure privacy.

Several servers in beautifully adorned kimonos were bringing tea. Kensuke only had a vague impression of who was sitting at the other tables. He was alone but found himself relaxed and happy. It was an odd feeling but he imagined it was because of the colorful garden, the tranquil burbling of a stream out of view, and the generally hushed atmosphere.

After a few moments a server made her way to him with a tea tray. With exquisite poise she sat down opposite him after a polite bow. Kensuke hurriedly returned the bow and couldn't help but stare at the beauty before him. She had purple hair that was brushed to a sheen and fell on a soft peach colored kimono. Her hands were fine and pale, their motions as they made tea seemed to captivate him. Realizing he was staring he looked away but caught the smile on her lightly painted lips. She had seen him. He blushed and looked at anything but her.

"Kensuke-kun, are you going to keep ignoring me today?" she broke the silence.

An odd feeling of familiarity at her voice went through him. Why was he pretending she was a stranger? This was Anko-san, the sweetest hostess in Fire Country, and more importantly, his dear friend. "No, no, sorry…I just have a lot on my mind," he made his excuse.

"Oh? Or is it because you're overcome at my beauty again?" Her delicate fingers applied the slightest pressure on his chin to move his face back toward her.

Kensuke felt like her touch was burning hot. He was blushing hard and he knew it. Anko-san always played with him like that, teasing him about his crush on her. "Come on, Anko-san, it's not fair that you're so beautiful."

"Mou," she made a childish sound of disappointment. "How long will you make me wait, Kensuke-kun, hmm? You have to grow up soon otherwise people will talk about how I'm taking advantage of you."

"T-T-That's not true!" he blurted. "I mean…I uh-"

Anko-san laughed delightedly, the folds of her kimono strained and Kensuke's eyes went to the hint of cleavage revealed. "But, you know, the girls are talking. Kensuke-kun is really becoming a man. They say you defeated your rival, Uzumaki Naruto. A strong man is so attractive."

My smile made my cheeks hurt. "Well…it wasn't that hard."

"Don't be modest, tell me everything. Your stories are always so _thrilling_." She shivers a little.

~.~

Of course, I remember Anko-san enjoys stories about ninja battles. She loved hearing about me thrashing Uzumaki after he dumped pig's blood on me. Come to think of it, I haven't told her about the game system. It'll be nice to talk to someone about my frustrations with it. "Ne, Anko-san, did I ever tell you about _[Applying Gamer'_ _s Mind. Objective: Protect System Information. Removing Gamer's Body to compensate for resource drain]_ Dai-san?"

What the Hell? I wasn't planning on talking about Dai. I wanted to tell her about the game.

"Dai-san is the one who brought you to the village. What does he have to do with your fight with Uzumaki-kun?" Anko-san asks.

I form the words about the game in my mind and try to force them to my mouth, but something takes control of my muscles and I hear myself saying, "Dai threatened me that if I didn't pass the exam this time he would sell me to a whorehouse...to make back the money he would've gotten as a bonus for finding an addition to the ninja forces."

This must be the 'Gamer's Mind' stopping me from sharing with Anko-san. God damn it, if I can't trust her, who can I trust?! Stop fucking with my life!

"Well you have been working very hard, Kensuke-kun. Did Dai tell you to attack Uzumaki too?"

"No…Uzumaki is annoyed with me because his crush is friends with me. He keeps ruining my things. I don't have funds to replace my clothes and books again and again. That's why I got so mad at him." My face burns in shame. _Why is the game making me say this?!_ I sound like a total bitch. What is Anko-san going to think of me now? There goes my chance to impress her.

There's a sudden cooling of temperature. I look around to find other people at the tables have disappeared. In fact, there seems to be a darkness that's slowly eating away at everything around us. The sky, the trees, all are disappearing within the darkness. Strangely, I'm not afraid.

"Did you hear me?" Anko-san asks.

I turn toward her, I must have zoned out, seeing the darkness. Something about Anko-san is different too. Ah, it's her hair. It was down earlier but now it's up in a rough and spiky ponytail. "Sorry, I got distracted."

"That's alright. I just asked what special move did you do to make Uzumaki-kun fall asleep at your last fight with him? It must have been really special." She smiled wide. "You know how excited I get at learning about new techniques."

"Oh right, I had this seal implanted on my hand-" I paused mentally, because the words I thought I was saying weren't coming out of my mouth. Instead of what I thought I had just said, out loud I was saying, "I don't know Anko-san. It was really weird. Uzumaki was beating the hell out of me but suddenly he just went to sleep. I mean I was trying to put him in a headlock but I couldn't really get a grip."

The darkness is now at the edges of the table where we are sitting. I want to scream and tell Anko-san that we are in danger but a strange calmness has taken over me. It's like a blanket over my thoughts. Anko-san seems to be thinking about my answer. The darkness creeps up and Anko-san starts to change. Her face no longer has makeup on it. She is wearing a trench coat of some sort which is open enough to show most of her breasts covered by a mesh shirt.

Blood rushes downwards. Hot damn! Anko-san has always seemed so graceful, I never imagined she would have – wait…who the fuck is Anko-san? I don't know this woman. Where am I? There's only darkness around us.

"Can you verify that statement?" Anko asks while looking over my head. I turn around and see a blonde woman there with her fingers outstretched toward me.

"Yes, as far as he knows, Uzumaki Naruto simply collapsed on him. I haven't found any evidence of falsehoods or training to resist interrogation and torture," the blonde said. "His mind is surprisingly easy to read. He has a raging boner for you right now." She rolls her eyes at Anko-san.

"Heh." Anko-san smirks. "Kid has taste after all. Have you finished checking his memories?"

"Everything is clear. Kid has some serious motivation. He hates Dai and is scared of getting his chakra locked and sold to a whorehouse. Uzumaki has been targeting him for a while too, so his fights with him make sense." The blonde shrugs.

My mind has become numb as I hear the exchange. I'm beginning to put together what's happening. I think I'm in some sort of a genjutsu, that the Gamer's Mind is slowly breaking. Crap, I almost gave away the whole thing to the purple-haired bitch.

"I don't see any triggers in his mind or anything suspicious either. Poor kid, looks like life decided to take a huge shit on him," Anko says. "He wants to be a ninja badly. The higher ups will like that. I'm going to release the illusion and put him back to sleep."

"As you say, senpai." The blonde nods. "I will send our report up the chain."

After that my vision is clouded by darkness and I drift off.

I wake up and cannot move. My arms and legs are bound by wide leather straps to a chair. There are three ninja in front of me. Two are in blank white masks and big cloaks that hide the shapes of their bodies. In the middle of them sits an old man with bandages covering his arm and part of his face.

"Which hidden village sent you?" one of the masked ninja asks. I cannot tell which one.

"Um, no one sent me, I don't even know where I am."

The ninja on my left puts his hands in a seal and suddenly my arms are on fire. I scream in fright and pain. My flesh curls and pops, the smell makes me gag. The fire disappears into seals that have been painted on my skin, that I hadn't noticed before. I gasp and hurl, turning my head to the side as far as I can go. It isn't far so my arm on top of being burned is covered in vomit.

"Which hidden village sent you?" one of them asks the question again.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! I'm from Konoha. I'm a student at the Academy!"

My legs catch fire. I thrash in the chair, unable to escape, unable to call any of my weapons. My chakra seems to be locked away. I scream so loud that I can feel myself getting hoarse.

[Pain threshold has increased by 3 points]

"Which hidden village sent you?"

"I!" I cough, the pain is unimaginable. "Am from Konoha. Who-" -I gasp and take short breaths- "are you?"

There is silence at my questions. None of my interrogators move. The old one in the middle is staring at me fixedly. I stare back. "What do you want from me?" I demand.

[WARNING][S-class compulsion technique detected. Compulsion parameters: Answer all questions with full truth. Gamer's Mind fortified. Objective: Protect System Information and Agent.]

"Were you sent to attack Uzumaki Naruto?" the old man asks in a gravely voice.

"Why the Hell is _everyone_ so obsessed with Uzumaki?" I shout. "No one sent me attack him. I fought him in an academy spar. I hate his guts. He's been picking on me since I got to the academy, he destroyed my books, my clothes, my-"

The old ninja interrupts, "What did you do to vanish Uzumaki's chakra?"

I stare at him as my blood runs cold. They knew. _They knew!_ My mouth starts moving without any input from me. "I did not do anything to his chakra. I tried to put him in a chokehold, that's it."

"Do you know sealing techniques?"

"No."

"How did you destroy the tailed-beast's chakra?" the old man presses.

The tailed beast? What is he talking about? "I have no idea what you mean."

The old ninja's single revealed eye narrows at me. "Are you a loyal citizen of Konoha?"

Fuck no you sadistic bastard. My mouth moves without my input again, "Yes and I will be the best ninja I can be."

The old man looks at the two ninja that flank him. Each of them makes hand signals that I don't understand. The old ninja nods and stands, he is holding a cane that I hadn't noticed before. "You are not to speak of this meeting. You will be executed for treason if you do."

"I understand."

The old ninja mutters something to the masked ninja. I take that moment to look above their heads. I hadn't dared before, afraid that I might react to what I would learn. The old ninja is Shimura Danzo and his level only has three question marks. The other two are a Hyuuga and a Yamanaka, also with question marks. I don't get any other information.

The Hyuuga walks over to my side and I unsuccessfully flinch away from him. He presses his hands on my arms. I hiss in pain which begins to abate pretty quickly. The Hyuuga's hands are glowing green because of a healing technique. My breathing gets easier as the pain begins to subside. He takes care of my legs too.

In the meantime the Yamanaka brings over a small tag with a seal on it. He forcibly opens my mouth and sets the tag on my tongue. I feel something burn on my tongue but it's far less painful than the torture I had just suffered. "You will be unable to speak of this interview. If you try, you will be in the worst pain of your life. After which you will be executed for treason. Do you understand?"

I hate them. I hate them. I want them all to burn for eternity. "Yes," I say in the flattest tone, I can. I don't think it's smart to let these monsters see how much I loath them. Heck, that time the Gaming System didn't even have to control my words. Maybe it's because the edge of my anger and loathing is blunted. I still feel a blanket over my emotions.

Once again I'm put to sleep.

I wake up in my apartment a little before my usual time in the mornings. For a moment I think I dreamt it all. But my arms and legs feel raw and sensitive. Looking them over I see shiny waves of healed-over burned skin. Hurriedly I go to the bathroom and check my tongue. Yes, there is a seal. So it was all real.

I had been taken from my home, had my mind invaded and been tortured. All because of the Gaming System's need for a special power source that had been inside Uzumaki. I had been a fool to think it wouldn't be noticed. I try to bring up anger and my usual disdain for Konoha but it's muted.

Very carefully I use my sensor skill and just as I expect I find three spies near me. I'm under even greater watch than I was before. Guess I won't be checking my stats today. There is one of them hanging on my apartment's ceiling, one is outside the window, and a third in the street I take to the academy. Speaking of stats, I didn't get my usual morning greeting from the system. Considering how much it controlled me the night before to protect itself, it must still be in self preservation mode.

On the one hand being under close surveillance means the Game will not be fucking around with me. On the other hand, I have creeps inside my apartment watching me sleep and do whatever else. Dulled emotions are really helpful in stopping me from freaking out right now. The logical course is to go about my day like a good little Konoha drone. I cannot give them any reason to doubt me.

And I have to stay the Hell away from Uzumaki.

As I dress and leave for school, I wonder what will happen if and when the Gaming System releases me from Gamer's Mind. Am I going to collapse under the horror of what happened to me? The question feels pretty academic. As far as I'm concerned I have only one objective right now and that is to not give the spies any reason to kill me. If the Gamer's Mind helps me with that, so be it.

[Mid-term quest: Finish the year out at the Academy without drawing further attention. Success: Surveillance lifted and survival. Failure: Capture and mental reprogramming by Root.]

.Chapter End.

AN. Sorry for its shortness. I've had a writer's block for a while. I'm excited to get past this scene and get on to graduation.


End file.
